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BV  660  .R3 

Ray,  Jefferson  Davis 
The  highest  office 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
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The  Highest  Office 


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The  Highest  Office 

A  Study  of  the  Aims  and  Claims 
of  the  Christian  Ministry 


JEFF  D.  RAY 


Professor  of  Homiletics  and  Pastoral  Theology  in  the 
Southwestern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary ^ 

Fort  Worthy  Texas 


New  York 

Fleming  H. 

London 


Chicago 

Revell  Company 

Edinburgh 


AND 


Copyright,  I923,  by 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :  75  Princes  Street 


To  those  noble  comrades 


The  Faculty  and  Students  of  the  Southwestern 
Baptist  Theological  Seminary ^ 

whose  confide7ice^  affection  and  fellowship  are 
prized  among  lifd  s  most  priceless  jewels  ^ 
this  volume  is  lovingly  dedicated  by 

The  Author 


A  Word  Extenuative 


DRYDEN  said,  “  It  is  not  my  intention  to 
make  an  apology  for  my  poem.  Some 
will  think  it  needs  no  excuse  and  others 
will  receive  none.’’  But  lawyers  have  what  they 
call  “  the  plea  of  confession  and  avoidance  ”  in 
which  the  defendant  admits  the  act  with  which  he 
is  charged  but  gives  reasons  why  he  should  not  suf¬ 
fer  its  penalty.  For  perpetrating  this  volume  upon 
an  innocent  and  unsuspecting  public  this  mitigative 
plea  is  here  and  now  made  and  is  based  upon  the 
following  statement  of  facts: 

So  far  as  I  am  aware  four  things  have  prompted 
the  publication  of  this  book.  (1)  That  invisible 
microbe  that  inspires  every  theological  professor 
with  the  desire  to  perpetrate  a  book.  (2)  Most  of 
the  chapters  in  this  book  have  been  delivered  in 
various  conferences  and  conventions,  and  on  all 
such  occasions  there  has  been  a  general  and  appar¬ 
ently  sincere  request  for  their  publication.  (3)  A 
publisher  while  not  insistent  that  they  “  would  fill 
a  long-felt  want  ”  admits  that  he  could  print  them 
without  fear  of  imprisonment  or  bankruptcy. 
(4)  The  feeling,  I  hope  modestly  cherished,  that 
long  experience  in  the  pastorate  and  more  than  a 
decade  of  teaching  pastoral  theology  in  a  seminary 

7 


8 


A  WOED  EXTENUATIVE 


has  qualified  me  to  say  a  helpful  word  to  some  of 
my  younger  brethren.  My  devout  prayer  is  that 
the  suggestions  herein  made  may  help  to  save  a 
young  brother  here  and  there  from  the  mistakes 
that  have  marred  my  own  ministry  and  hearten 
him  with  the  things  that  have  encouraged  and 
helped  me. 

There  is  no  conscious  plagiarism  in  this  book  but 
there  is  certainly  nothing  original  nor  even  new  in 
it.  All  it  contains  I  have  either  read  or  heard  or 
observed  or  experienced. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  is  made  of  the  help 
derived  from  the  writings  of  Herrick  Johnson, 
J.  M.  Hoppin,  C.  E.  Jefferson,  and  above  all  from 
the  personal  teaching  and  influence  of  B.  H.  Car- 
roll.  It  is  unblushingly  confessed  that  if  there  are 
worth-while  thoughts  in  the  book  they  have  prob¬ 
ably  been  derived  directly  or  indirectly  from  one  or 
the  other  of  these  noble  men,  or  from  other  good 
men  of  whom  they  are  a  worthy  type. 

J.  D.  R. 

Seminary  Hill, 

Port  Worth,  Tex, 


Contents 


I.  The  Basis  OF  THE  Office  .  .  .  ii 

II.  The  Titles  of  the  Office  .  .  25 

III.  The  Titles  of  the  Office  {Continued)  44 

IV.  The  Call  to  the  Office  ...  65 

V.  The  Permanence  of  the  Office  .  84 

VI.  The  Maintenance  of  the  Office  .  100 

VII.  Some  Qualifications  for  the  Office 

— Physical  and  Mental  .  .127 

VIII.  Some  Qualifications  for  the  Office 

— Moral  and  Spiritual  .  .  142 

IX.  Some  Modern  Demands  OF  the  Office  168 

X.  The  Non-Official  Functions  of  the 

Office . 203 

XI.  Some  Lowering  Shadows  of  the 

Office . 225 

XII.  Some  Insidious  Snares  of  the  Office  239 

XIII.  Some  Glorious  Rewards  of  the 

Office . 256 

XIV.  The  Bishop-Coadjutor  of  the  Office  272 


9 


I 


THE  BASIS  OF  THE  OFFICE 

How  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher? 

— Romans  10:  14. 

Every  office  in  a  well-ordered  government 
has  its  justifying  psychological  basis.  One 
of  the  abuses  of  government  is  that  the 
people  are  often  confused  with  many  useless  offices 
and  burdened  with  the  support  of  a  horde  of  un¬ 
necessary  officials  that  have  persisted  for  genera¬ 
tions  after  the  justifying  psychological  basis  has 
ceased  to  exist.  There  was  a  time  when  England 
was  governed  by  a  king.  For  generations,  how¬ 
ever,  she  has  had  a  government  of  the  people  and 
by  the  people.  And  yet  the  office  of  king  has  per¬ 
sisted  and  its  figurehead  incumbent  continues  to 
speak  with  Don  Quixotic  bombast  of  my  army  ” 
and  “  my  navy  and  my  subjects.^^  Even  in  our 
own  more  modern  government  there  is  a  constant 
tendency  to  perpetuate  obsolete  offices  and  appoint 
and  pay  men  to  perform  antiquated  official  func¬ 
tions  “  more  honoured  in  the  breach  than  in  the 
observance.’* 

We  come,  to  discuss  an  office  that  has  persisted 
in  its  present  form  and  under  its  present  titles  for 


II 


12 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


nineteen  centuries.  Was  there  ever  a  good  and 
sufficient  reason  for  the  institution  of  this  office? 
Or,  granting  that  it  was  once  a  useful  and  neces¬ 
sary  office,  has  it  outlived  its  usefulness  ?  Has  the 
twentieth  century  incumbent  of  the  pastoral  office 
become  a  religious  figurehead,  or  does  he  fill  an 
important,  vital,  practical  and  necessary  place?  Is 
the  preacher  a  mechanically  animated  skeleton 
brought  over  from  the  shades  of  the  first  century 
and  thrust  into  the  arena  of  twentieth  century  ac¬ 
tivities  in  which  he  plays  no  vital  part  ?  Or  is  the 
preacher  of  to-day  a  virile  force,  an  essential  fac¬ 
tor  in  moulding  the  modern  social  mind  and  direct¬ 
ing  modern  activities?  A  little  careful  thinking 
will  compel  an  affirmative  answer  to  the  last  ques¬ 
tion.  An  observant,  unbiased,  thoughtful  man 
must  see  that  the  pastoral  office  is  not  a  sinecure 
position  to  which  men  are  arbitrarily  appointed, 
but  that  it  is  one  that  has  its  solid,  justifying  basis 
in  the  very  nature  of  things. 

Let  us  consider  some  proofs  of  this  proposition. 
To  begin  with,  then,  we  find  adequate  justification 
for  the  pastoral  office  in  a  universal  need  for  it. 
Paul  clearly  teaches  that  the  gospel  preacher  is 
directly  and  specifically  set  apart  to  his  office  by 
the  sovereign  will  of  God.  But  he  guards  against 
the  inference  that  the  institution  of  this  office  and 
the  calling  of  men  to  fill  it  was  an  arbitrary  act  of 
God.  He  teaches,  rather,  that  the  office  was  cre¬ 
ated  and  men  called  into  it  in  answer  to  an  inher- 


THE  BASIS 


13 


ent,  essential  and  universal  need  of  the  human 
heart.  In  Acts  17 :  26-27,  he  says:  “And  he  made 
of  one  blood  every  nation  of  man  to  dwell  in  all 
the  face  of  the  earth,  having  before  determined 
their  appointed  seasons,  and  the  bounds  of  their 
habitations;  that  they  should  seek  God  if  haply 
they  might  feel  after  him  and  find  him,  though  he 
is  not  far  from  each  one  of  us.’^  This  language 
clearly  implies  that  the  universal  man — the  man  of 
every  nation — ^has  a  capacity  an^a  heart  hunger 
for  God;  and  that  the  universalWan  instinctively 
“  feels  after  God.”  But  the  language  distinctly  in¬ 
timates  that  this  unaided  intuitive  struggle  after 
God  will  probably  be  in  vain.  His  expression  “  if 
haply  ”  more  than  suggests  that  if  these  untaught 
seekers  find  God  it  will  be  an  accident.  The  mean¬ 
ing  of  his  expression  “  feeling  after  God  ”  is  not 
illustrated  by  the  germinating  seed  that  unerringly 
feels  out  through  the  dull  clod  for  light  and  air.’ 
It  answers  rather  to  the  figure  of  a  blindfolded 
child  aimlessly  beating  the  air  in  a  confused  and 
vain  search  for  its  playmate. 

Paul  points  out  the  same  universal  need  when  he 
inquires  (Rom.  10:14),  “How  then  shall  they 
call  on  him  in  whom  they  have  not  believed?  and 
how  shall  they  believe  in  him  of  whom  they  have 
not  heard?  and  how  shall  they  hear  without  a 
preacher  ?  ”  The  thought  is  that  though  man  may 
have  a  zeal  for  God  (Rom.  10:  2),  he  will  not 
come  into  saving  relation  to  God  unless  there  shall 


14 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


be  sent  to  him  a  preacher — a  man  appointed  and 
qualified  to  interpret  divine  things.  This  idea  is 
strengthened  if  we  remember  that  the  word  here 
translated  “  preacher  has  in  it  etymologically  the 
idea  of  a  herald  especially  qualified  and  formally 
appointed. 

When  standing  on  the  western  shore  of  Asia, 
Paul  saw  a  man  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Europe 
beckoning  to  him  for  help,  he  witnessed  a  whole 
continent’s  mute  confession  that,  while  men  every¬ 
where  feel  after  God  they  cannot  find  Him  unless 
some  qualified  teacher  ‘‘  come  over  and  help  ”  them. 

Later,  while  standing  in  Athens,  the  very  heart 
of  human  culture,  Paul  saw  an  altar  to  an  un¬ 
known  God,”  he  saw  further  proof  of  the  twofold 
proposition  that  the  highest  human  culture  hungers 
for  God,  and  that,  unaided  by  a  God-appointed 
preacher,  the  highest  human  culture  cannot  find 
Him. 

The  same  truth  was  emphasized  when  the  Ethi¬ 
opian  treasurer  admitted  to  Philip  on  the  Gaza 
road  that  he  could  not  understand  the  spiritual 
meaning  of  God’s  word  without  a  qualified  teacher. 
“  Understandest  thou  what  thou  readest  ?  ”  How 
can  I  except  some  man  (some  qualified  man) 
teach  me  ?  ” 

Job  was  speaking  the  universal  human  language 
when  he  said,  “  Surely  I  would  speak  to  the  Al¬ 
mighty  and  I  desire  to  reason  with  him  ”  (Job 
13:  3). 


THE  BASIS 


15 


The  Samaritan  woman  (John  4:  25)  was  inter¬ 
preting  to  Jesus  the  world’s  heart  hunger  and  ear¬ 
nest  expectation  and  conscious  need  when  she  said 
to  Him,  “  I  know  that  the  Messiah  cometh,  and 
when  he  is  come  he  will  teach  us  all  things.” 

Socrates,  a  heathen  philosopher  whose  utterances 
sometimes  almost  seem  inspired,  felt  the  need  of 
such  a  divinely  appointed  and  divinely  qualified 
teacher,  and  not  only  foretold  his  coming,  but 
begged  his  disciples  to  hear  him  v(h^  he  came. 

A  Vedic  poet  voiced  his  heart  search  for  the 
altar  stairs  leading  up  to  the  divine  footstool  in  the 
line,  ‘‘  Who  is  the  God  whom  we  should  revere  ?  ” 
A  later  generation  showed  how  vain  is  the  unaided 
search  for  God  by  interpreting  the  poet’s  noble 
words  to  mean,  ‘‘  There  is  a  god  called  Who  and 
we  should  make  sacrifices  to  Who.”  And  in  later 
generations  the  priests  were  required  to  make  two 
sets  of  offerings,  one  to  a  god  called  Who  and  one 
to  a  God  called  Whom — as  separate  deities.  Thus 
the  innate  human  instinct  for  God  utters  its  cry 
and  thus  the  untaught  human  hand  answers  that 
cry  by  building  altars  to  an  unknown  and  an  un¬ 
knowable  God. 

In  his  introduction  to  Hiawatha,  Longfellow 
said: 

“Ye  whose  hearts  are  fresh  and  simple, 

Who  have  faith  in  God  and  nature, 

Who  believe  that  in  all  ages 
Every  human  heart  is  human; 


16 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


That  in  even  savage  bosoms 

There  are  longings,  yearnings,  strivings 

For  the  good  they  comprehend  not ; 

That  the  feeble  hands  and  helpless 
Groping  blindly  in  the  darkness 
Touch  God’s  right  hand  in  that  darkness, 

And  are  lifted  up  and  strengthened — 

Listen  to  this  simple  story, 

To  this  song  of  Hiawatha.” 

He  is  doubtless  right  in  his  position  that  in  even 
savage  bosoms  there  is  a  consciousness  of  God  and 
a  flickering  spasmodic  yearning  for  God ;  but  he  is 
over-confident  if  he  means  to  teach  that  every  such 
untaught  savage  will  find  God.  How  can  they 
hear  without  a  preacher?  How  can  they  under¬ 
stand  except  some  man  interpret  to  them  the  un¬ 
known  God  whom  they  have  "perchance  touched? 

So,  whether  we  consult  the  untaught  savage,  the 
heathen  philosopher,  the  Jewish  prophet,  the  Chris¬ 
tian  apostle,  or  the  poet  of  ancient  or  modern  times, 
we  find  the  need  of  a  qualified  and  authorized  re¬ 
ligious  teacher  universally  recognized  and  the  com¬ 
ing  of  such  a  teacher  universally  desired. 

A  second  evidence  that  the  pastoral  office  has  its 
basis  in  nature  is  found  in  a  universal  custom  of 
mankind.  Wherever  man  is,  religion  is.  Wher¬ 
ever  religion  is  we  find  the  officers  of  religion. 
The  facts  of  history  justify  Hoppin  in  saying, 
**  Wherever  man  is  or  has  been  found  something 
essentially  corresponding  to  the  office  of  Christian 


THE  BASIS 


17 


pastor  or  permanent  religious  teacher  has  in  fact 
been  also  found  to  exist.’^  Every  religion  has  had 
its  priest.  It  is  true  that  many  of  the  religious  dig¬ 
nitaries  have  been  cringing  sycophants,  selfish  para¬ 
sites,  who  made  religion  a  vehicle  of  fraud,  graft, 
impurity  and  cruelty.  But  while  these  priestly  ab¬ 
surdities  and  immoralities  would  tend  to  invalidate 
the  religion  they  taught,  they  establish  our  proposi¬ 
tion  that  there  is  in  man's  nature  an  unquenchable 
desire  for  a  religious  teacher.  But  for  this  in¬ 
stinct  for  a  spiritual  guide  the  ^athen  peoples 
would  repudiate  their  absurd  ancEunworthy  relig¬ 
ious  functionaries.  Their  mimetic  dances,  their 
mystery  games,  their  wild  incantations,  their  furi¬ 
ous  bodily  exercises,  their  absurdly  artificial  char¬ 
acter-testing  ordeals,  their  licentious  orgies,  their 
human  sacrifices,  all  in  the  name  of  religion  are 
unthinkable  to  one  accustomed  to  the  lofty  sim¬ 
plicity  of  Hebrew  prophet  or  Jewish  priest  or 
Christian  pastor,  but  alike  with  prophet,  priest  and 
pastor  they  furnish  the  proof  that  man  universally 
desires  and  feels  the  need  of  a  religious  teacher 
and  that  the  pastoral  office  so  far  from  being  super¬ 
ficial  and  arbitrary  has  its  roots  in  man's  essential 
nature. 

A  still  further  reason  for  maintaining  that  the 
office  is  founded  in  nature  is  the  instinctive  shep¬ 
herd  heart.  We  all  know  men  who  seem  to  have 
been  like  Paul,  separated  from  birth  to  the  pastoral 
office.  By  nature,  gifts,  qualifications,  tempera- 


18 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


mental  and  intellectual  tendencies,  certain  men  seem 
foreshadowed  to  this  office.  The  Latins  had  a 
proverb:  poeta  mscitur  non  fit  (The  poet  is  born, 
not  made).  Substitute  “preacher"’  for  “poet” 
and  you  have  stated  a  deeper,  more  essential  truth. 
We  all  know  men  both  in  history  and  in  the  limited 
sphere  of  our  personal  acquaintance  who  were  evi¬ 
dently  born  with  the  preacher’s  heart  and  the 
preacher’s  hand  and  the  preacher’s  habit.  In  this 
work  they  are  happy  and  successful,  but  you  could 
no  more  train  them  into  the  happy  and  successful 
pursuit  of  any  other  calling  than  you  could  train  a 
fig  into  a  thistle. 

Some  men  are  so  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice,  so  endued  with  the  power  of  human  sym¬ 
pathy,  so  saturated  with  moral  earnestness,  so 
dauntlessly  determined  to  know  and  teach  the 
truth,  so  exquisitely  spiritual  in  their  trend  of  mind 
and  so  delicately  discriminating  in  both  conception 
and  statement  of  religious  truth  that  if  there  were 
no  office  of  the  ministry  we  would  feel  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  creating  it  that  such  men  might  have  a  place 
where  they  could  function  and  where  their  gifts 
could  be  exercised  to  the  greatest  good  of  society. 

In  concluding  the  story  of  his  conversion  from 
infidelity,  B.  H.  Carroll  said,  “  I  knew  then  as  well 
as  I  know  now  that  I  would  preach,  that  it  would 
be  my  life-work,  that  I  would  have  no  other  work.” 
Will  you  try  to  imagine  certain  men  having  any 
other  business  than  that  of  gospel  preacher?  Try 


THE  BASIS 


19 


it  on  Origen,  Chrysostom,  Athanasius,  Ambrose. 
Try  it  on  Wyclif,  Luther,  Calvin,  John  Knox. 
Try  it  on  Schleiermacher,  John  Wesley,  Christmas 
Evans,  Jonathan  Edwards.  Try  it  on  Spurgeon, 
Moody,  Beecher,  Phillips  Brooks.  Or,  to  come  to 
living  men,  select  a  group  of  the  spiritual  leaders 
within  your  own  acquaintance  and  try  it  on  any  of 
them.  Imagine  Bishop  Candler  a  contented,  care¬ 
free  commercial  traveller.  Imagine  William  An¬ 
derson  the  pleased  and  prosperou^_^resident  of  a 
bank  in  Dallas.  Imagine  G.  W.VTruett  the  suc¬ 
cessful  manager  of  a  Texas  railroad.  Imagine 
E.  Y.  Mullins  the  proud  proprietor  of  a  depart¬ 
ment  store  in  Louisville.  These  men  have  the  abil¬ 
ity  to  fill  these  secular  places  nobly.  All  these  are 
in  themselves  honourable  callings,  but  these  men 
are  so  evidently  set  apart  by  a  divine  edict  for  the 
work  of  preaching  that  we  would  count  them  de¬ 
graded  in  entering  even  the  noblest  secular  calling. 

Or  if  you  are  a  preacher,  imagine  yourself  out  of 
the  Gospel  Ministry  and  giving  your  time  and  en¬ 
ergy  to  some  worthy  commercial  calling.  If,  as 
you  imagine  it,  such  a  change  would  bring  you  no 
especial  embarrassment  and  no  sense  of  incongruity 
and  no  feeling  of  shame,  you  will  never  make  the 
right  sort  of  preacher.  It  proves  that  you  are  lack¬ 
ing  in  those  delicate,  undefined,  indefinable,  intan¬ 
gible  temperamental  qualities  so  essential  to  the 
ideal  gospel  minister.  I  would  not  say  what  Spur¬ 
geon  is  reported  (perhaps  falsely)  to  have  said, 


20 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


that  a  man  ought  not  to  enter  the  ministry  if  he  can 
stay  out  of  it,  but  I  will  say  that  if  a  man  finds  him¬ 
self  happy  or  satisfied  or  even  unembarrassed  in 
any  other  calling  he  has  no  proper  place  in  the 
ministry. 

Having  said  this,  we  must  admit  with  sadness 
that  there  are  ministers  (many  of  them  alas,  alas) 
whose  entrance  upon  a  secular  calling  would  elicit 
neither  surprise  nor  comment  nor  regret.  They 
are  secular  in  their  thinking,  worldly  in  their  ideals, 
carnal  in  their  methods.  In  their  conduct  and  con¬ 
versation  they  reveal  none  of  those  marks  of  sepa¬ 
rateness  that  characterize  the  God-made  and  God- 
called  preacher.  Paul  believed  that  the  preacher 
was  a  man  separated  and  consecrated  to  the  work 
of  preaching  the  gospel.  His  life  program  was 
“  this  one  thing  I  do.”  Gloriously  he  lived  that 
program.  The  preachers  of  the  first  church  set  a 
worthy  example  to  all  their  successors  when  they 
not  only  desired  but  demanded  that  they  be  relieved 
of  secular  entanglements  though  of  the  noblest  and 
most  altruistic  kind,  that  they  might  “  continue 
steadfast  in  prayer  and  in  the  ministry  of  the 
word  ”  (Acts  6:4). 

For  this  zvork  of  pastor  God  has  peculiarly 
qualified  certain  men.  If  there  is  to  be  no  such 
office  it  is  not  easily  understood  why  these  men 
have  had  bestowed  upon  them  the  intellectual,  tem¬ 
peramental  and  spiritual  gifts  peculiarly  and  spe¬ 
cifically  qualifying  them  for  such  an  office. 


THE  BASIS 


21 


Here  is  an  engineer  about  to  start  his  engine  on 
its  long  journey  with  its  trainload  of  passengers. 
He  sees  a  nut  fall  from  his  engine.  Taking  it  up 
he  sees  that  it  was  made  to  fit  a  bolt  of  a  certain 
size.  Knowing  that  the  machinist  would  not  have 
made  it  and  put  it  in  the  engine  unless  he  had  also 
made  a  bolt  it  would  fit,  he  delays  his  train  till  he 
finds  that  bolt.  The  nut  made  to  fit  a  bolt  argues 
the  existence  of  that  bolt.  So  a^an  specifically 
qualified  of  God  to  fill  an  office  implies  the  divine 
purpose  that  there  should  be  such  an  office.  The 
preacher  with  the  God-given  pastor  heart  and  the 
instinctive  desire  for  the  pastoral  office  furnishes 
good  evidence  that  God  decreed  and  established 
that  office. 

Now  the  foregoing  leads  to  some  inevitable  prac¬ 
tical  conclusion  to  which  we  may  well  give  a  little 
serious  reflection. 

1.  If  the  pastoral  office  is  thus  imbedded  in  the 
very  nature  of  things  every  man  who  feels  himself 
called  to  this  fundamental  task  ought  to  enter  it 
with  the  deepest  sense  of  reverence  for  the  office. 
To  such  a  man  the  ministry  is  not  a  calling  of  such 
superficial  nature  that  it  can  be  taken  up  and  laid 
down  as  a  matter  of  personal  choice  or  individual 
convenience.  To  such  a  man  it  is  not  a  task  of 
such  secondary  importance  that  it  may  be  pursued 
in  a  half-hearted  slip-shod  perfunctory  way.  To 
such  a  man  the  ministry  is  not  a  life  of  slavish 
humdrum  and  ordinary  commonplace  drudgery. 


22 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


but  a  life  so  replete  with  the  highest  and  best  that  it 
stirs  every  romantic  instinct  and  appeals  to  every 
chivalrous  impulse,  calling  into  activity  everything 
in  his  nature  that  is  best  and  noblest.  He  enters  it 
with  Paul’s  compelling  sense  of — “  Woe  is  me  if  I 
preach  not  the  gospel  ” ;  and  he  continues  in  it  with 
Paul’s  exalted  purpose — “  I  magnify  mine  office 
and  he  labours  in  it  with  Paul’s  undivided  consecra¬ 
tion — “  This  one  thing  I  do  ” ;  and  he  prosecutes  it 
with  Paul’s  sacrificial  self-forgetful  willingness 
to — ‘‘  gladly  spend  and  be  spent  ”  in  meeting  its 
lofty  demands ;  and  he  dedicates  to  it  a  clean  holy 
life,  saying  with  Paul  (2  Cor.  6:  3-10) : 

“  Giving  no  offence  in  anything,  that  the  ministry 
be  not  blamed:  But  in  all  things  approving  ourselves 
as  the  ministers  of  God  in  much  patience,  in  afflic¬ 
tions,  in  necessities,  in  distress,  in  stripes,  in  impris¬ 
onments,  in  tumults,  in  labours,  in  watchings,  in  fast¬ 
ings  ;  By  pureness,  by  knowledge,  by  long-suffering, 
by  kindness,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  love  unfeigned, 
By  the  word  of  truth,  by  the  power  of  God,  by  the 
armour  of  righteousness  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left,  By  honour  and  dishonour,  by  evil  report  and 
good  report :  as  deceivers,  and  yet  true ;  As  unknown, 
and  yet  well  known;  as  dying,  and,  behold,  we  live; 
as  chastened,  and  not  killed ;  As  sorrowful,  yet  alway 
rejoicing;  as  poor,  yet  making  many  rich;  as  having 
nothing,  and  yet  possessing  all  things.” 


2.  If  this  office  is  thus  embedded  in  the  nature 


THE  BASIS 


23 


of  things,  it  demands  that  churches  give  these  men 
the  opportunity  of  using  their  gifts.  If  there  is 
any  truth  in  the  talk  about  a  growing  shortage  of 
men  entering  the  ministry  and  increasing  tendency 
for  those  who  are  in  to  drop  out  and  enter  other 
more  or  less  altruistic  callings,  may  it  not  be  at 
least  partially  due  to  the  fact  that  the  churches  are 
so  niggardly  in  their  giving  that  th^y  do  not  afford 
a  support  that  would  make  it  pos^le  for  a  man  to 
give  himself  with  an  undivided  heart  to  the  dis¬ 
charge  of  his  duties  as  a  preacher.  Nearly  all 
rural  churches  in  the  South  are  either  Methodist 
or  Baptist.  When  we  consider  the  fact  that  eight¬ 
een  out  of  every  twenty  rural  Baptist  churches  and 
fifteen  out  of  every  seventeen  rural  Methodist 
churches  in  the  South  have  only  once  a  month 
preaching,  and  that  practically  all  these  are  supplied 
by  absentee  pastors,  and  that  the  very  large  ma¬ 
jority  of  these  pastors  are  forced  to  give  more 
than  half  their  time  to  secular  callings  in  order  to 
live,  how  can  we  expect  anything  else  than  that  the 
preacher  shall  be  dehearted  of  his  power  and  the 
ministry  as  a  life's  calling  deflowered  of  its  charm  ? 
If  there  is  that  in  human  nature  that  calls  for  the 
ministrations  of  the  spiritual  teacher  then  human 
nature  must  not  be  too  parsimonious  to  so  maintain 
this  spiritual  teacher  that  he  may  give  himself 
wholly  to  the  altruistic  exercise  of  his  shepherd 
gifts.  A  fourth-time  church  with  its  absentee 
pastor  and  with  the  doors  of  its  meeting  house 


24 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


closed  90  per  cent,  of  the  time,  can  contribute  very 
little,  to  the  community,  and  certainly  affords  a 
very  slight  challenge  to  the  chivalrous  devotion  of 
a  red-blooded  man  to  become  its  pastor.  If  these 
men  favoured  with  the  gift  of  the  shepherd-heart 
are  to  do  their  best  for  humanity’s  instinctive  call 
for  spiritual  leaders  they  must  not  be  handicapped 
by  the  burden  of  “  much  serving  ”  in  other  spheres 
— and  the  churches  must  afford  them  equipment 
and  opportunity  to  have  an  effectual  hand  in 
moulding  the  spiritual  life  of  the  people. 

The  lamented  Sylvester  Horne  spoke  a  great 
truth  when  he  said :  “  The  preacher  who  is  the  mes¬ 
senger  of  God  is  the  real  master  of  society,  not 
elected  by  society  to  be  its  ruler  but  elect  of  God 
to  form  its  ideals  and  through  them  to  guide  and 
rule  its  life.  Show  me  the  man  who  in  the  midst 
of  a  community  however  secularized  in  its  manners 
can  compel  it  to  think  with  him,  can  kindle  its 
enthusiasm,  revive  its  faith,  cleanse  its  passions, 
purify  its  ambitions  and  give  stedfastness  to  its 
will,  and  I  will  show  you  the  real  matter  of  society, 
no  matter  what  party  may  nominally  hold  the  reins 
of  government,  no  matter  what  figure-head  may 
occupy  the  nominal  place  of  authority.” 

If  such  is  the  preacher’s  lofty  prerogative  what 
a  pity  to  shackle  him  with  lack  of  opportunity  or 
lack  of  equipment,  and  what  a  tragedy  if  having 
such  opportunity  and  equipment  he  is  too  petty  and 
frivolous  and  short-sighted  to  utilize  them. 


II 


THE  TITLES  OF  THE  OFFICE 

I  was  appointed  a  preacher,  apostle,  teacher/^ 

— 1  Timothy  2:  L 

Shakespeare  was  nght^  saying  that  a 
rose  by  any  other  name  would  smell  as 
sweet.  But  he  was  wrong  if  he  held,  as 
the  context  seems  to  imply,  that  there  is  nothing 
in  a  name.  Often  have  we  seen  a  man  handicapped 
through  life  by  the  name  his  parents  gave  him  or 
by  the  nickname  given  him  by  his  companions. 
The  character  and  standing  of  the  preacher  in  any 
given  age  will  be  at  least  suggested  by  the  names 
or  titles  given  him  by  his  contemporaries.  It  is 
an  interesting  fact  that  every  title  applied  to  the 
preacher  whether  scriptural  or  vernacular  implies, 
when  its  etymology  is  traced,  the  highest  respect 
for  him  and  his  office.  Let  us  now  give  attention 
to  some  of  these  titles.  We  study  them  not 
primarily  for  the  sake  of  information  about  the 
titles  themselves,  but  because  the  titles  of  the 
office  will  throw  much  light  on  the  nature  and 
duties  of  the  office. 

I.  Some  Titles  not  Found  in  Scripture 
1.  Clergyman.  The  word  is  derived  from  the 

25 


26 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


Latin,  Clericus  (a  priest).  The  Latin  word  is  a 
transliteration  of  the  Greek  word, 
(Clericos),  which  has  the  same  meaning.  The 
Greek  word  comes  from  ^^rjpog  (^cleros)  which 
means  a  lot  or  something  chosen  by  lot.  Its  being 
applied  to  the  pastoral  office  arose  no  doubt  from 
the  primitive  custom  of  choosing  church  officers  by 
lot  (Acts  1:  36).  As  a  specific  title  the  word 
clergyman,  though  more  frequent  in  England,  is 
rarely  used  in  this  country  except  among  Episco¬ 
palians,  or  their  superficial  imitators.  The  generic 
word  clergy  is  quite  generally  used  when  it  is  de¬ 
sired  to  distinguish  preachers  as  a  class  from  the 
so-called  laity. 

Let  us  turn  aside  here  to  discuss  for  a  moment 
the  expression  Benefit  of  Clergy.”  The  phrase 
furnishes  an  illustration  of  the  growth  of  words. 
It  is  by  many  supposed  to  mean  that  in  England 
a  certain  class  of  criminals  were  put  to  death,  being 
denied  the  spiritual  ministrations  of  a  clergyman. 
But  not  so.  It  originally  referred  to  the  privilege 
claimed  by  the  Mediaeval  Church  of  having  its 
clergy  exempt  from  trial  before  civil  courts.  Black- 
stone  says:  “  The  ancient  usage  was  for  the  bishop 
to  demand  his  clerics  to  be  tried  in  the  bishop’s 
instead  of  the  king’s  court.”  In  1330  by  an  edict 
of  Edward  III  the  exemption  was  extended  to  all 
who  could  read.  The  civil  courts  could  not  punish 
the  crime  of  any  man  who  like  a  clergyman  could 
read.  The  pleasing  feature  as  it  relates  to  this 


THE  TITLES 


27 


Study  is  that  it  shows  the  clergy  and  the  class  who 
could  read  were  considered  practically  identical. 
It  emphasizes  also  the  instinctive  tribute  men  pay 
to  education — putting  it  on  the  same  plane  with 
religion.  Clergy  and  intelligence  were  words  that 
represented  ideas  used  almost  interchangeably. 

2.  Rector,  The  word  isj^rived  from  the  Latin 
regere  (to  lead  straight,  to  rule).  Etymologically 
it  implies  three  things  expected  of  the  preacher. 
(1)  He  must  be  a  man  qualified  to  lead.  (2)  He 
must  be  a  straightforward  man.  (3)  He  must  be 
a  man  clothed  with  authority.  The  word  indicates 
the  high  regard  in  which  their  religious  teachers 
are  held  by  the  people.  The  title  is  still  in  common 
use,  limited  however  to  the  Church  of  England  and 
in  this  country  to  the  Episcopalians,  and  it  is 
sometimes  applied  by  the  Catholics  to  the  parish 
priest.  They  more  often,  however,  apply  it  to  the 
superior  (head)  of  a  college  or  seminary  and  it 
has  often  been  so  used  by  those  not  Catholics.  The 
word  regent  ’’  so  often  used  to  indicate  the  con¬ 
trolling  authority  of  a  College  or  University  has 
the  same  Latin  origin  as  rector.”  For  a  long 
time  the  President  of  Yale  College  was  called 
''  Rector  ”  instead  of  “  President.”  Thus  again 
we  see  the  official  representative  of  religion  vitally 
connected  with  education.  How  superficial  the 
sceptic’s  sneer  that  the  ministers  of  the  Christian 
religion  have  retarded  and  opposed  higher  educa¬ 
tion.  Taken  as  a  class  they  have  been  in  every 


28 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


country  Its  patrons.  Along  the  trail  of  the  ages 
their  contribution  to  every  branch  of  higher  educa¬ 
tion  has  far  surpassed  that  of  any  other  calling — 
perhaps  that  of  all  other  callings. 

3.  Parson.  Why  should  a  preacher  object  to 
being  called  parson  ?  It  is  the  old  English  way  of 
saying  person.”  They  pronounced  person  par¬ 
son  ”  just  as  they  pronounced  clerk  “  dark.”  When 
they  spoke  of  the  minister  as  “  the  parson  ”  they 
designated  him  the  preeminent  individual  in  the 
community.  It  is  true  the  word  has  degenerated 
by  use,  as  so  many  words  do,  and  is  now  often 
spoken  by  way  of  disparagement.  It  is  also  ad¬ 
mitted  that  words  mean  what  they  mean  and  not 
what  they  used  to  mean.  But  if  “  some  lewd  fel¬ 
low  of  the  baser  sort  ”  thinks  to  discount  you,  my 
sensitive  young  brother,  by  calling  you  ‘‘  parson,” 
recoup  yourself  by  remembering  the  word’s  noble 
etymology,  and  mollify  your  lacerated  epidermis 
with  the  reflection  that  in  applying  to  you  the  title 
that  designates  you  the  chief  person  in  the  com¬ 
munity,  the  churl  spoke  more  wisely  than  he  knew. 

4.  Reverend.  The  word  comes  from  the  Latin 
revereri  (to  fear).  It  occurs  one  time  in  our 
English  Bible  (Ps.  111:9)  and  is  there  applied 
to  God.  For  this  reason  and  perhaps  others,  there 
are  many  who  object  to  it  as  a  title  applied  to  men. 
If  our  use  of  it  implies  the  etymological  meaning 
it  hardly  embodies  the  New  Testament  notion  of 
the  pastoral  oflice.  Spurgeon  seems  to  have  ob- 


THE  TITLES 


29 


jected  to  the  title  not  so  much  on  etymological  nor 
on  scriptural  grounds  as  on  general  principles. 
When  asked  by  one  of  his  students  as  to  the  use 
of  this  title  he  is  reported  to  have  said,  “  It  depends 
on  who  he  is.  If  he  i^  very  small  mite  of  a  man 
whom  no  one  would  ste  except  with  a  microscope, 
call  him  Reverend.  If  he  is  anybody  that  is  any¬ 
body,  you  need  not.''  But  the  man  who  objects 
to  being  called  parson  "  should  not  object  to  being 
called  Reverend "  for  he  said  then,  Words 
mean  what  they  mean  and  not  what  they  used  to 
mean."  If  the  word  once  carried  the  idea  of  awe 
and  cringing  fear  that  idea  when  it  is  used  as  a 
ministerial  title  is  no  longer  in  it.  As  now  used 
among  us  the  word  simply  means  that  the  man  to 
whom  it  is  applied  is  a  preacher.  In  every-day 
use  it  means  that;  just  that;  nothing  more,  nothing 
less.  There  are  other  titles  that  some  of  us  prefer, 
but  life  is  so  full  of  real  issues  that  we  might  well 
regard  this  one  as  negligible.  Epithetiphobia  is 
neither  fatal  nor  dangerous,  but  it  sometimes 
makes  a  patient  a  little  uncomfortable  and  slightly 
disagreeable. 

5.  Doctor.  Originally  this  was  an  academic 
title  indicating  that  the  bearer  of  it  was  sufficiently 
versed  in  a  certain  branch  of  knowledge  to  teach 
it.  Now  it  is  used  to  indicate  that  the  possessor 
of  it  has  taken  the  highest  degree  in  a  College, 
University  or  Seminary.  The  degree  is  often  con¬ 
ferred  when  there  is  little  learning  and  less  merit. 


30 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


It  is  growing  more  and  more  common  to  call  all 
ministers  ‘‘  Doctor/’  Such  people  forget  or  never 
knew  that  Doctor  ”  is  a  scholar’s  and  not  a 
preacher’s  title.  If  a  preacher  bears  the  title  it  is 
not  because  he  is  a  preacher,  but  because  he  is,  or 
is  supposed  to  be,  a  scholar.  Usually  the  scholar 
who  wears  the  title  “  Doctor  of  Divinity  ”  is  a 
preacher.  But  the  degree  is  occasionally  conferred 
upon  men  who  are  not  preachers.  So  that  “  D.  D.” 
does  not  necessarily  imply  a  preacher.  There  are 
noble  brothers  who  hold  that  when  Jesus  said, 
“Be  not  ye  called  Rabbi”  (Matt.  3:  8),  He  was 
specifically  forbidding  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Di¬ 
vinity.  The  brother  who  holds  that  view  should 
burn  his  Master’s  diploma  whether  in  theology  or 
arts,  for  the  tenth  verse  forbids  us  to  be  called 
master.  This  brother  should  never  say  “  Father 
Buckner  ”  again,  nor  allow  the  little  orphans  to 
say  it.  He  should  also  call  his  paternal  ancestor 
“  Dad  ”  or  “  the  old  man,”  for  the  ninth  verse  for¬ 
bids  us  to  call  any  man  on  the  earth  father.  See 
the  folly  of  “  mere  verbal  and  literal  interpreta¬ 
tion.”  In  his  commentary  on  Matthew,  Dr. 
Broadus  has  a  sane  word  on  this  question.  “  What 
our  Lord  prohibits,”  he  says,  “  is  desire  for  the 
distinction  involved  in  being  recognized  as  a  re¬ 
ligious  teacher.  A  man  who  shows  great  desire 
‘  to  be  invited  into  the  pulpit  ’  or  otherwise  pub¬ 
licly  treated  as  a  minister  is  exactly  violating  this 
command.  The  title  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  is  often 


THE  TITLES 


31 


so  conferred,  so  sought,  so  borne  and  so  declined 
as  to  come  under  this  head,  but  it  is  the  spirit  in¬ 
volved  rather  than  the  phrase  that  should  be  con¬ 
demned/’  Title  fever  is  a  very  unaccountable  and 
a  very  infectious  disease.  The  germ  is  very  prolific 
in  Theological  Seminary  atmospheres.  Perhaps 
the  best  remedy  ior  it  is  a  mixture  in  equal  parts 
of  religion  and  common  sense.  It  is  said  of  the 
late  Mrs.  J.  B.  Gambrell  that  when  her  dis¬ 
tinguished  husband  received  this  degree,  she  told 
him:  “  The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  is  like  the 
curl  in  a  pig’s  tail — somewhat  ornamental,  but  it 
does  not  add  anything  to  the  weight  of  the  pig.” 
I  would  rather  be  a  mouse-trap  that  could  do  the 
business  than  a  mogul  engine  that  could  not  pull. 
It  is  the  man,  my  brothers, — what  he  is  and  what 
he  can  do  that  counts,  and  not  the  source  and  num¬ 
ber  of  his  degrees. 

“  The  rank  is  but  the  guinea’s  stamp 
The  man’s  the  gold  for  a’  that.” 

But  let  us  turn  now  to  discuss 

II.  Some  Titles  Found  in  Scripture 

1.  Apostle.  The  Greek  noun  is  &TT6(7roXo<s 
(apostolos)  from  the  verb  d7:o(T<:iXXaj  (^apostello) 
(to  send  forth).  The  word  carries  with  it  the  idea 
of  one  thoroughly  prepared  and  definitely  author¬ 
ized  to  go  on  a  special  mission.  Usage  in  classic 


32 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


Greek  as  well  as  the  example  of  our  Saviour  in 
training  and  sending  out  the  twelve  justifies  the 
idea  that  the  word  means  more  than  simply  to  send 
off,  but  implies  thorough  preparation  and  a  defi¬ 
nitely  outlined  mission,  illustrated  by  a  passage  in 
classic  Greek  in  which  apostolos  is  used  for  “  a 
commander  of  a  fleet  ready  to  sail/^ 

There  is  evidently  no  such  office  now  as  the 
New  Testament  apostle.  The  qualifications  of  an 
apostle  furnish  sufficient  proof  of  this  proposition. 
An  apostle  was  one  who  had  (1)  seen  Jesus,  who 
had  (2)  “  companied  with”  Him  and  His  dis¬ 
ciples  during  His  ministry  and  had  (3)  received 
from  Him  supernatural  gifts  of  miracles  and  in¬ 
spiration.  This  effectually  disposes  of  the  Romish 
fiction  of  Apostolic  succession  which  means  that 
the  power  and  authority  of  the  Apostles  have  been 
directly  transmitted  in  unbroken  succession  from 
man  to  man  in  every  generation  since  Christ.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  this  view  every  parish  priest  and  every 
village  rector  has  received  his  official  power  and 
authority  through  a  direct  unbroken  chain  of 
apostolic  predecessors.  Good  intelligent  men  teach 
and  doubtless  sincerely  believe  that  figment.  How 
such  twaddle  can  ‘‘  get  by  ”  in  the  twentieth  cen¬ 
tury  some  of  us  cannot  imagine.  Hoppin  makes 
some  sober  and  illuminating  remarks  on  the  sub¬ 
ject:  “The  fallacy  of  the  theory,  we  think,  is  in 
making  the  succession  individual  instead  of  gen¬ 
eral.  The  fact  of  a  body  of  Christian  ministers 


THE  TITLES 


33 


continually  existing  from  the  time  of  the  Apostles 
to  the  present  day  or  of  the  Church  always  having 
and  recognizing  its  own  ministers  who  in  an  im¬ 
portant  sense  derive  their  succession  from  the 
apostles  by  pos^^ing  their  spirit  and  teaching  the 
truth  they  taught — this  is  an  undeniable  fact;  but 
that  any  one  minister  of  the  series — let  him  be 
called  “  bishop  ’’  or  simple  “  pastor  — has  had  an 
unbroken  descent  of  successive  ordinations  from 
the  Apostles — this  is  too  broad  an  assertion.  It 
cannot  be  sustained  and  this  is  all — ^this  assump¬ 
tion — that  there  is  in  apostolic  succession.’’ 

The  true  preacher  finds  his  authority  and  his 
encouragement  in  a  glowing  present  call  of  God 
and  not  in  a  shadowy  doubtful  succession  of  men. 
But  having  denied  the  doctrine  of  a  chronological 
and  mechanical  succession,  we  not  only  gladly  ad¬ 
mit  but  earnestly  maintain  that  there  is  a  very 
genuine  sense  in  which  every  true  preacher  is  a 
successor  to  the  apostles.  The  preacher  succeeds 
the  apostle  because  he  is  doing  essentially  the  same 
work,  in  answer  to  the  same  divine  call  and  under 
practically  the  same  divine  instructions.  While 
not  claiming  to  be  formal  successors  to  the  apos¬ 
tolic  office  or  apostolic  authority  we  are  taught  to 
make  their  official  conduct  an  example  for  our  own. 
Paul  called  the  Ephesian  elders  together  (Acts  20) 
and  in  the  course  of  a  rather  long  address  said  to 
them:  ‘‘In  all  things  I  gave  you  an  example.” 
Blessed  is  that  modern  preacher  who  though  re- 


34 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


jecting  apostolic  succession  models  his  life  after 
apostolic  example. 

2.  Prophet.  Certain  persons  in  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament  record  seem  to  have  been  especially  inspired 
to  teach  and  interpret  divine  truth  and  even  to  fore¬ 
tell  events.  Revealing  truth  and  foretelling  the 
future  constituted  the  striking  characteristic  duties 
of  the  Old  Testament  prophet.  The  inspired  inter¬ 
pretation  to  a  heathen  mind  of  a  truth  already  re¬ 
vealed  seems  to  have  been  the  chief  work  of  the 
New  Testament  prophet.  We  have,  however  (Acts 
11:  28),  evidence  that  these  New  Testament  proph¬ 
ets  had  also  supernatural  knowledge  of  the  future. 
Because  of  limited  New  Testament  data  it  is  diffi¬ 
cult  to  say  whether  the  title  prophet  ’’  implied 
a  distinct  order  or  office  in  the  Church  or  referred 
to  a  special  gift  conferred  upon  and  exercised  by 
individuals  regardless  of  official  position.  The  lat¬ 
ter  alternative  seems  to  have  the  better  of  the  ar¬ 
gument.  The  main  Scripture  passages  bearing  upon 
the  subject  are  Matthew  10:41;  23:34;  Luke 
11:49;  Acts  11:27;  Acts  13:1;  Acts  15:32; 
1  Corinthians  12:28-29;  Ephesians  2:20;  3:5; 
4:11;  Revelation  18:20;  22:6-9.  Comparing 
these  with  post-apostolic  Christianity  it  is  safe  to 
assume  that  whether  an  office  or  a  gift  it  passed 
away  with  the  apostolic  period.  Yet  when  one 
remembers  history  he  dares  not  speak  too  dog¬ 
matically  on  this  point.  Would  one  write  himself 
down  a  hopeless  heretic  if  he  regarded  as  super- 


THE  TITLES 


35 


naturally  enlightened  prophetic  interpreters  of  re¬ 
vealed  but  forgotten  truth  such  men  as  Athanasius, 
Luther,  Calvin,  Bunyan,  Carey,  and  Carroll?  Or 
what  true  preacj^r  has  not  at  times  experienced 
an  afflatus  giving  to  his  ministry  spiritual  power 
and  insight  not  his  own  ?  But  such  views  must  be 
entertained  cautiously,  if  at  all,  lest  they  lead  to 
fanaticism.  Because  many  false  prophets  are  gone 
out  into  the  world  it  is  well  to  obey  the  Scripture 
injunction  to  prove  the  spirits  before  trusting  them 
too  far.  One  acid  test  is  the  candidate’s  own  claim. 
The  man  who  lays  loudest  claim  to  this  divine 
afflatus  is  apt  to  have  the  least  of  it. 

3.  Evangelist.  The  word  comes  from  the 
Greek  eoayyeXtaTTj^  (^euaggelistes)  and  means  a 
bringer  of  good  tidings.  Touching  its  New  Testa¬ 
ment  signification  three  views  are  advanced.  (1) 
It  was  like  the  Apostolate,  a  distinct  office,  but  like 
it  passed  away  with  the  closing  of  the  apostolic 
period — there  being  no  necessity  for  such  an  office 
after  Christianity  had  been  inaugurated.  (2)  It 
was  a  distinct  office  intended  to  be  permanent  in 
the  Churches.  (3)  It  was  not  a  distinct  office  in 
any  sense  but  was  a  gift  which  might  be  bestowed 
upon  individuals  and  exercised  by  them  indepen¬ 
dent  of  official  position.  The  word  occurs  in  the 
Scriptures  only  three  times.  (1)  Where  reference 
is  made  (Acts  21:  8)  to  “  the  house  of  Philip  the 
evangelist  who  was  one  of  the  seven.”  (2)  Where 
Paul  charges  Timothy  (2  Tim.  4:  5)  to  “do  the 


36 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


work  of  an  evangelist/’  (3)  Where  some  of  the 
spiritual  functionaries  are  enumerated,  “And  he 
gave  some  to  be  apostles,  and  some  prophets,  and 
some  evangelists  and  some  pastors  and  teachers  ” 
(Eph.  4:  11).  The  last  reference  would  seem  to 
imply  that  it  was  a  separate  office  of  lower  rank 
than  apostle  and  prophet  but  higher  than  pastor 
and  teacher.  But  taking  the  passage  in  connection 
with  the  other  two  my  own  mind  is  impelled  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  New  Testament  evangelist  was 
a  man  upon  whom  special  gifts  were  bestowed  as 
it  pleased  the  Spirit  but  that  the  exercise  of  these 
gifts  did  not  imply  a  distinct  office.  Evangelism 
was  and  is  a  glorious  gift  to  be  used  and  not  a 
separate  office  to  be  filled.  This  position  is  taken 
with  some  hesitancy  in  view  of  the  fact  that  prac¬ 
tically  all  the  authorities  hold  either  that  it  is  a 
distinct  office  still  in  force  or  that  it  was  a  distinct 
office  but  abolished  after  the  inauguration  of 
Christianity.  The  view  that  it  was  and  is  a  spiri¬ 
tual  gift  and  not  a  distinct  church  office  is  based  on 
the  following  facts:  (1)  Philip  held  the  office  of 
deacon  but  was  called  an  evangelist.  (2)  Timothy 
held  the  office  of  bishop  or  elder  but  was  told  to 
do  the  work  of  an  evangelist — exercise  the  bishop’s 
office  in  the  evangelistic  spirit.  (3)  Paul  held  the 
office  of  apostle,  yet  he  was  a  typical  evangelist 
and  referred  to  himself  more  than  a  score  of  times 
as  doing  the  work  of  an  evangelist.  (4)  In  Paul’s 
letters  to  Timothy  and  Titus  he  gives  in  detail  the 


THE  TITLES 


37 


qualification  for  the  bishop-elder  office  and  also  for 
the  office  of  deacon,  but  gives  none  for  the  office  of 
evangelist.  (5)  We  find  New  Testament  record 
of  men  being  ordained  to  the  office  of  deacon 
(Acts  6:3)  and  to  the  office  of  elder  (Titus  1:5) 
but  no  record  oi  their  being  ordained  to  the  office 
of  evangelist.  In  church  history  we  find  the 

story  of  evangelism  clearly  set  out  but  no  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  evangelist  as  a  distinct  officer  in  the 
church. 

Saying  that  the  evangelist  is  not  now  and  never 
was  a  distinct  officer  in  the  church  does  not  dis¬ 
count  evangelism  nor  unfrock  the  evangelist.  The 
one  point  here  insisted  upon  is  that  there  are  just 
two  officers  in  a  New  Testament  Church — the 
bishop  (elder,  pastor,  teacher),  and  the  deacon. 
When  God  comes  to  bestow  the  evangelistic  gift 
it  may  please  Him  to  choose  a  man  from  either 
of  these  offices  or  He  may  make  His  choice  from 
the  non-official  ranks.  Some  of  the  greatest 
evangelists  in  history  have  been  men  holding  no 
official  position  in  the  Church.  It  goes  without 
saying,  however,  that  the  evangelistic  gift  is  usu¬ 
ally  found  in  one  who  is  officially  a  preacher  or 
who  because  of  his  marked  possession  of  this  gift 
will  soon  become  a  preacher. 

Much  time  has  been  foolishly  wasted  trying  to 
determine  which  is  more  important  in  the  King¬ 
dom — the  evangelistic  gift  or  the  pastor-teacher 
gift.  One  may  as  well  discuss  which  is  more  im- 


38 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


portant  m  a  house — foundation  or  walls.  There 
never  was  a  true  pastor  who  did  not  have  an 
evangelistic  heart  and  there  never  was  an  ideal 
evangelist  who  did  not  have  a  shepherd’s  heart. 
In  one  man  one  quality  will  be  found  preeminent, 
in  another  the  other;  but  in  every  true  preacher 
both  elements  will  be  found.  In  some  men  the 
evangelistic  element  is -so  predominant  that  they 
ought  to  give  themselves  wholly  to  that  work. 
With  some  men  the  pastoral  element  is  so  pre¬ 
dominant  that  the  pastorate  is  evidently  their  life’s 
work.  With  a  few  rare  and  radiant  souls  the 
evangelistic  and  the  pastoral  element  are  so  evenly 
balanced  that  they  are  as  much  at  home  in  one  as 
in  the  other.  These  are  the  noble  men  who  in  our 
modern  parlance  are  called  pastor-evangelists. 
These  are  the  ideal  preachers.  Such  were  Paul 
and  Timothy.  To  be  such  is  the  noblest  ambition 
any  preacher  can  indulge. 

4.  Teacher.  The  Greek  word  is 
(didaskalos).  It  occurs  fifty-seven  times  in  the 
New  Testament.  It  is  applied  to  Jesus  thirty- 
eight  times  and  when  thus  used  is  always  trans¬ 
lated  master  except  in  the  mouth  of  Nicodemus 
where  it  is  translated  teacher.  In  2  Timothy  1:  11, 
Paul  applies  it  to  himself.  Besides  these  it  three 
times  refers  to  the  office  of  the  New  Testament 
preacher, — Acts  13:1;  1  Corinthians  12:28-29; 
and  Ephesians  4:  11.  The  ministerial  function  im¬ 
plied  in  this  word  is  close  akin  to  that  contained 


THE  TITLES 


39 


In  pastor — not  synonymous  with  it  but  comple¬ 
mentary  to  it.  In  Ephesians  4:  11,  the  words  pas¬ 
tor  and  teacher  refer  to  the  same  officer.  A  literal 
translation  of  the  verse  would  be,  And  he  gave 
indeed  the  apostles,  and  the  prophets,  and  the 
evangelists,  and-f^he  pastors  and  teachers.’’  There 
are  two  reasons^ for  believing  that  apostle  ”  and 
prophet  ”  and  evangelist  ”  refer  to  different  per¬ 
sons,  while  pastor”  and  “teacher”  refer  to  the 
same  person.  (1)  The  omission  of  the  article  be¬ 
fore  “  teachers,”  and  its  use  before  all  the  other 
titles.  If  one  should  say,  “  they  sold  the  farm  and 
the  store  and  the  mill  and  the  house  and  lot,”  he 
would  imply  an  identity  between  “  house  ”  and 
“  lot  ”  not  predicated  of  the  others.  (2)  The  word 
translated  “  and  ”  between  “  pastor  ”  and 
“teacher”  is  (kai)  the  word  always  used  to 
connect  words  similar  or  identical  in  meaning, 
whereas  the  word  used  between  the  other  titles  is 
the  adversative  particle  (de)  indicating  dis¬ 
similarity. 

5.  Elder.  The  Greek  word  is  npetr^urspo^ 
(preshuteros).  In  its  primary  sense  it  referred  to 
a  person  of  advanced  age  but  because  filling  a  high 
office  carried  with  it  like  old  age  the  idea  of  honour 
and  dignity  the  word  came  to  apply  to  persons  in 
high  official  position — among  the  Jews,  members 
of  the  Sanhedrin, — in  civil  government,  ambassa¬ 
dors,  and  in  the  New  Testament,  leaders  of  the 
churches.  The  word  occurs  about  sixty-five  times 


40 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


in  the  New  Testament,  referring  about  fifteen 
times  to  the  pastoral  office.  It  implies  the  dignity 
of  this  office  and  gravity  on  the  part  of  the  man 
who  fills  it.  When  Paul  enjoined  Timothy,  “  Let 
no  man  despise  thy  youth (1  Tim.  4:  12),  he 
was  begging  Timothy  to  be  guilty  of  no  youthful 
frivolity  inconsistent  with  the  dignity  of  his  high 
office.  When  he  said,  “  Flee  also  youthful  lusts 
(pleasures)  ''  he  was  suggesting  that  there  are 
youthful  pleasures  and  amusements  permissible 
perhaps  to  other  young  people  which  the  young 
preacher  must  forego.  Young  preachers  in  my 
acquaintance  have  earned  for  themselves  the  con¬ 
tempt  of  thoughtful  people  because  they  forgot 
this  advice  of  Paul.  What  they  did  was  not  sin¬ 
ful — it  was  just  silly — but  it  cost  them  their  min¬ 
isterial  standing  in  the  community.  The  young 
preacher  has  often  hurtfully  disregarded  this 
Pauline  injunction  by  innocent  attention  to  the 
young  women  in  the  congregation.  Timothy  should 
be  scrupulously  gallant  to  every  woman  in  his 
church  but  not  the  gallant  of  any.  By  all  means 
the  pastor  should  have  a  hand  on  and  in  the 
amusements  of  his  young  people  but  unless  he  is 
careful  of  manner  and  motive  the  people  will 
despise  him  for  it.  Certainly  there  is  no  super¬ 
stitious  sanctimoniousness  about  the  preacher  that 
detaches,  separates,  and  isolates  him  from  any 
other  saved  man.  But  in  the  last  analysis  the 
preacher's  office  essentially  differentiates  him  from 


THE  TITLES 


41 


others — in  his  own  eyes,  in  the  eyes  of  the  people 
^  and  in  the  eyes  of  God.  Yes,  the  Church  is  a 
democracy  in  which  all  men  are  free  and  equal, 
but  the  preacher  because  of  his  office  is  under  a 
noble  constraint  that  does  not  impel  others.  Danc¬ 
ing  for  joy  before  the  Lord  was  a  common  and  in 
itself  a  commendable  thing  among  the  Jews,  but 
when  King  David  laid  aside  his  royal  raiment  and 
joined  the  people  in  this  harmless,  semi-religious 
exercise  we  are  told  that  his  wife  “  Michal  the 
daughter  of  Saul  looked  out  at  the  window  and 
saw  King  David  dancing  and  playing  and  she 
despised  him  in  her  heart.’’ 

My  young  preacher  brother  will  claim  that  he 
has  the  same  human  instincts  that  other  redeemed 
young  people  have  and  has  the  same  right  to 
gratify  them.  Abstractly  considered  he  is  right 
about  it.  He  has  the  law  on  his  side,  and  yet,  All 
things  are  lawful  but  not  all  things  are  expedient; 
all  things  are  lawful  but  not  all  things  edify.  Let 
no  man  seek  his  own  but  each  his  neighbour’s 
U  good.”  No  man  has  a  right  to  do  all  he  has  a  right 
to  do.  James  Ward  says:  ‘‘Without  this  inter- 
subjective  intercourse  mankind  remains  a  herd; 
with  it  they  become  a  society.”  The  right-minded 
young  preacher  will  wear  no  badge  of  separateness 
and  assume  no  air  of  aloofness  but  will  be  con¬ 
sciously  clothed  with  the  unseen  ermine  of  his 
office  and  thereby  restrained  from  the  thing  that  is 
frivolous  and  unseemly.  If  the  boy  preacher  feels 


42 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


that  there  is  an  inconsistency  in  his  being  called 
elder  ”  let  him  remember  that  the  title  is  based 
not  on  the  age  of  the  incumbent  but  on  the  dignity 
with  which  he  is  supposed  to  fill  the  office. 

6.  Bishop.  The  Greek  word  is  '^rd<juono<i 
(episkopos)  and  means  an  overseer.  The  commis¬ 
sioners  sent  by  Athens  to  superintend  her  tribu¬ 
tary  states  were  called  episkopoi.  In  the  Septua- 
gint,  the  oldest  Greek  version  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  men  filling  certain  important  executive  sta¬ 
tions  were  called  episkopoi.  (Num.  4:  16; 
31:  14;  Ps.  109:  8;  Isa.  60:  17.)  Since  one  of  the 
duties  of  the  pastor  of  a  New  Testament  church 
was  that  of  overseeing  and  superintending  its  af¬ 
fairs  it  was  quite  natural  that  one  of  the  titles  of 
the  officers  should  be  episkopos.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
equivalent  for  the  Greek  word  is  biscop — (bishop) 
and  it  is  always  so  translated  in  our  English  Bible 
(R.  V.).  It  would  seem  desirable  to  insert  here 
a  brief  statement  of  the  views  of  leading  denomina¬ 
tions  on  this  subject. 

Broadly  speaking,  there  are  three  views  held. 
(1)  The  office  of  bishop  is  in  direct  unbroken 
apostolic  succession  and  is  divinely  vested  with 
apostolic  power  and  superior  authority.  This  view 
is  held  by  Roman  Catholics,  Greek  Catholics  and 
the  High  Church  element  of  both  the  Church  of 
England  and  the  Episcopal  Church  in  this  country. 
They  all  regard  this  doctrine  as  essential  to  the 
very  existence  of  the  Church.  More  than  once  the 


THE  TITLES 


43 


Episcopalians  of  this  country  have  thwarted  their 
much  advertised  desire  for  organic  Christian  union 
by  insisting  that  this  doctrine  of  the  episcopacy  as 
they  hold  it  should  be  made  the  first  plank  in  the 
platform. 

(2)  The  office  of  bishop  while  superior  to  other 
ranks  in  the  ministry  is  not  by  apostolic  succession 
nor  by  scriptural  authority  exercised  as  a  distinct 
office,  but  has  come  to  be  so  exercised  and  recog¬ 
nized  on  the  ground  of  expediency.  They  regard 
the  episcopate  as  desirable  and  necessary  for  the 
well-being  of  the  Church  but  in  no  sense  indis¬ 
pensable  to  its  existence.”  This  view  is  held  by  the 
Low  Church  element  in  the  Church  of  England 
and  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  by  Methodists,  Mora¬ 
vians,  Lutherans  and  some  other  small  congrega¬ 
tions. 

(3)  There  is  no  such  distinct  office,  but  the 
word  bishop,  along  with  presbyter,  pastor  and 
teacher  is  used  to  designate  any  man  set  apart 
formally  to  the  gospel  ministry.  This  view  is  held 
by  Baptists,  Congregationalists,  Disciples,  Presby¬ 
terians  and  others.  It  is  not  meant  that  the  sepa¬ 
rate  groups  classified  under  (1),  (3),  and  (3), 
hold  exactly  the  same  views.  In  fact  they  do  not. 
But  it  is  believed  that  the  individual  congregations 
in  each  group  are  near  enough  alike  to  justify  the 
classification  proposed. 


THE  TITLES  OF  THE  OFFICE  {Continued) 


""  Tend  my  sheep J' — John  21:  16. 

ET  us  give  this  entire  chapter  to  the  dis¬ 
cussion  of  the  preacher^s  preeminent  title. 
Shepherd,  The  Greek  word  is  T^otfnjv 
(poimen).  It  is  also  translated  by  the  synonymous 
word  ‘‘  pastor.’’  Shepherd  is  the  Anglo-Saxon 
and  pastor  the  Latin  derivative  for  the  same  idea. 
The  word  is  used  seventeen  times  in  the  New 
Testament.  Seven  times  it  is  applied  to  our  Lord 
and  once  (Eph.  4:  11)  to  the  preacher.  In  this 
case  it  is  translated  pastor.  In  all  others  it  is 
translated  shepherd. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  his  helpful  little  book, 
‘‘  The  Minister  as  Shepherd,”  Dr.  C.  E.  Jefferson 
says:  ‘‘  Of  all  the  titles  that  have  been  minted  for 
the  envoys  of  the  Son  of  God  that  of  shepherd  is 
the  most  popular  and  the  most  beautiful  and  the 
most  ample.”  He  will  have  no  trouble  in  getting 
a  practically  unanimous  verdict  that  the  word 
shepherd  ”  is  the  most  beautiful  and  the  most 
ample  title  for  the  gospel  minister;  but  if  by  “  most 
popular”  he  means  most  commonly  used,  he  is 
wide  of  the  mark.  If,  however,  with  his  Anglo- 

44 


THE  TITLES 


45 


Saxon  “  Shepherd  ”  he  will  combine  its  Latin 
synonym  “  pastor  ”  his  statement  will  pass  unchal¬ 
lenged.  The  pity  of  it  is  that  with  the  usual  proc¬ 
ess  of  linguistic  degeneration  the  word  pastor  has 
in  a  very  large  measure  lost  the  shepherd  idea. 
Most  of  those  who  now  use  the  word  pastor  do 
not  have  his  shepherd  quality  in  mind.  If  Mr. 
Jefferson  had  chosen  as  the  title  of  his  book  ‘‘  The 
Pastor  as  Shepherd  ”  probably  few  would  have 
noticed  that  he  was  trying  to  limit  the  meaning  of 
one  word  by  the  use  of  another  that  is  etymologic¬ 
ally  its  exact  synonym.  The  man  who  will  restore 
to  the  word  ‘‘  pastor  ”  its  proper  shepherd  mean¬ 
ing  will  be  a  genuine  benefactor.  That  we  may 
contribute  our  mite  to  this  devoutly  wished  con¬ 
summation  let  us  emphasize  some  of  the  essential 
pastoral  qualifications  implied  in  calling  the 
preacher  a  shepherd.  In  His  last  conversation  with 
Peter  (John  21:  15-17)  Jesus  makes  some  very 
discriminating  suggestions  on  the  duties  of  a  shep¬ 
herd. 

(1)  Oversight.  In  the  sixteenth  verse  He  says 
tend  my  sheep.’'  It  would  do  no  violence  to  the 
Greek  word  if  we  translated  it  ‘‘  Shepherd  my 
sheep  ”  or  if  we  might  verbalize  another  noun, 
“  pastor  my  sheep.”  The  crying  need  of  our 
churches  is  shepherds  who  will  diligently  tend  the 
sheep.  I  am  for  the  eloquent  sermon,  the  packed 
auditorium,  the  modern  Sunday  school,  the  large 
collection.  But  beware,  good  as  all  these  things 


46 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


are  there  is  in  them  a  constant  temptation  to  the 
pastor  to  exploit  the  sheep  rather  than  to  shepherd 
them.  In  your  congregation  are  the  sick  and  the 
wayward  and  the  discouraged  and  the  doubting  and 
the  vacillating.  It  is  your  God-appointed  business 
to  shepherd  these  sick  sheep.  You  have  the  shep¬ 
herd’s  heart  and  the  impulse  of  that  noble  heart  is 
to  do  this  very  thing.  Your  danger  is  that  you  will 
allow  some  other  supposed  duty  to  sidetrack  you 
from  the  main  line. 

In  your  congregation  are  those  who  are  being 
assailed  by  some  subtle  heresy.  The  wolf  of  false 
doctrine  is  prowling  stealthily  and  relentlessly  in 
the  trail  of  one  of  your  sheep.  What  are  you  go¬ 
ing  to  do  about  it?  Are  you  going  to  prepare  a 
great  sermon  on  that  heresy  and  preach  it  some 
Sunday  morning  when  perhaps  the  one  member 
affected  is  not  present,  serving  probably  no  other 
purpose  than  to  advertise  the  heresy  among  those 
who  know  not  of  it  and  scatter  its  infection 
throughout  the  entire  community.  Why  doctor  the 
whole  flock  when  only  one  sheep  is  sick?  To  give 
medicine  to  a  man  who  does  not  need  it  is  some¬ 
times  as  serious  in  its  results  as  not  to  give  it  to 
one  who  does.  Or  there  is  one  in  your  congrega¬ 
tion  who  is  being  besieged  by  an  insidious  tempta¬ 
tion.  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?  Are 
you  going  to  prepare  a  great  sermon  on  that  pe¬ 
culiar  temptation  and  fire  it  at  the  heads  of  people 
to  whom  it  does  not  apply  and  to  whom  it  is  prac- 


THE  TITLES 


47 


tically  without  meaning  ?  That  is  the  easiest  way, 
but  it  will  perhaps  do  no  good  and  may  and  doubt¬ 
less  ydll  do  harm. 

To  speak  in  concrete  terms — it  is  reported  to  you 
that  a  young  girl  in  your  community  has  been 
dancing.  There  are  two  ways  to  deal  with  the 
case.  One  is  to  preach  on  it.  In  all  probability 
you  will  say  some  rash  thing  that  will  alienate  the 
affectionate  confidence  of  your  young  people  and 
discount  your  wisdom  in  the  minds  of  many  who 
are  older.  The  young  girl  herself,  goaded  with 
the  sense  of  being  ‘‘  preached  at  before  the  whole 
congregation,  boils  over  with  resentment,  says  she 
will  dance  when  she  pleases  and  asks  that  her  name 
be  stricken  from  the  church  roll.  Many  people 
will  sympathize  with  her ;  it  is  talked  around ;  peo¬ 
ple  take  sides  and  the  first  thing  you  know,  you 
have  a  schism  in  your  church  and  have  not  stopped 
the  dancing.  The  other  way  to  deal  with  it  is  to 
go  some  afternoon  in  the  spirit  and  with  the  heart 
of  a  shepherd  to  the  young  girl’s  home  and  in  the 
presence  of  her  mother  go  over  the  matter  with 
her  tenderly  and  affectionately.  Show  her  that 
while  the  act  of  dancing  may  not  seem  wrong  to 
her  that  she  ought  to  be  willing  to  give  it  up  be¬ 
cause  it  is  offensive  to  many  of  the  best  members 
of  the  church  and  will  cripple  her  own  usefulness 
as  a  Christian.  If  this  is  done  with  the  brother- 
heart  and  the  shepherd-spirit  the  young  girl  will 
in  all  probability  give  up  dancing  and  will  from 


48 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


that  day  become  your  unflinching  friend  and  un¬ 
wavering  champion. 

A  sheep  of  yours  is  gradually  and  perhaps  un¬ 
consciously  grazing  toward  the  marsh  or  the  preci¬ 
pice  or  the  beast-infested  wilderness.  All  the  other 
sheep  are  quietly  ruminating  in  the  shade.  Are 
you  going  to  arouse  the  whole  flock  and  chase  them 
all  over  the  prairie  because  one  sheep  is  going 
astray?  When  the  shepherd  in  Luke  15  discov¬ 
ered  that  one  sheep  had  gone  astray,  he  left  the 
ninety  and  nine  and  went  forth  in  quiet  personal 
effort  to  restore  the  straying  sheep.  He  found  his 
straying  sheep  first  and  then  pulled  off  his  sensa¬ 
tion.  Too  many  of  us  pull  off  our  sensation, 
preach  our  big  sermon  first,  and  do  not  find  the 
stray  sheep  at  all. 

You  are  pastor  of  this  church,  my  brother. 
What  are  you  here  for?  To  make  a  sermon?  To 
draw  a  crowd?  To  build  a  Sunday  school?  To 
raise  a  collection?  Yes,  incidentally.  As  a  means 
to  an  end — yes.  But  your  danger  is  that  you  shall 
dishonour  these  splendid  ministerial  functions  by 
making  them  an  end  and  not  a  means.  In  the 
same  verse  where  Paul  told  Timothy  to  ‘‘  preach 
the  word,”  he  also  commanded  him  to  reprove, 
rebuke,  exhort  with  all  long-suffering  and  teach¬ 
ing.”  If  Paul  in  his  address  to  the  Ephesian  elders 
emphasized  his  public  preaching,  he  also  in  the 
same  sentence  emphasized  his  tearful  personal 
teaching  from  home  to  home.  In  emphasizing  the 


THE  TITLES 


49 


duty  of  personal  individual  watch-care  of  the  flock 
I  am  not  meaning  to  decry  the  preacher’s  public 
functions.  The  fact  that  a  man  is  at  this  moment 
facing  east  does  not  compel  him  to  deny  the  charm 
of  a  sunset.  Many  preachers  talk  about  choosing 
between  being  a  good  pastor  and  a  good  preacher 
just  as  if  one  precluded  the  other.  If  a  man  does 
not  give  his  people  personal  pastoral  attention  his 
preaching  may  be  logical  and  forceful  and  scrip¬ 
tural,  but  it  will  have  a  far-away,  metallic  ring. 
Such  preaching  is  some  better  than  a  phonograph 
but  not  much.  On  the  other  hand  if  a  man’s 
preaching  is  weak,  flabby,  and  uninteresting,  his 
personal  ministrations  soon  become  stale,  flat  and 
unprofitable.”  The  preacher  who  enlightens  my 
head  or  mellows  my  heart  with  his  strong  sermon 
on  Sunday,  will  be  a  respected,  coveted  and  profit¬ 
able  visitor  in  my  home  during  the  week.  And 
the  preacher  whose  pastoral  visit  during  the  week 
comforted  and  heartened  and  steadied  me  left  a 
soil  in  a  high  state  of  preparation  for  his  Sunday’s 
message.  Happy  is  the  preacher  whose  heart  re¬ 
sponds  to  Peter’s  glowing  exhortation  to  the  eld¬ 
ers  (1  Pet.  5:  2-4):  “Tend  (shepherd)  the  flock 
of  God  which  is  among  you,  exercising  the  over¬ 
sight,  not  by  constraint  but  willingly  according  to 
the  word  of  God ;  nor  yet  for  filthy  lucre  but  of  a 
ready  mind,  neither  as  lording  it  over  the  charge 
allotted  to  you  but  making  yourselves  examples  to 
the  flock.  And  when  the  chief  shepherd  shall  be 


60 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


manifested  ye  shall  receive  the  crown  of  glory  that 
fadeth  not  away.” 

(2)  Another  duty  of  the  shepherd  suggested  by 
this  same  conversation  between  Peter  and  his  Lord 
is  that  he  shall  feed  the  sheep  (John  21:  15-17). 

It  is  told  of  a  farmer  that  his  favourite  horse 
began  to  lose  flesh,  grew  weak  and  seemed  about 
to  die.  He  called  in  his  neighbours.  They  tried 
all  the  remedies  known  to  their  limited  veterinary 
pharmacopoeia,  but  like  the  woman  in  the  Bible, 
the  victim  of  many  doctors,  he  grew  nothing  better 
but  worse.  At  last  a  wise  old  farmer,  “  a  Daniel 
come  to  judgment,”  looked  the  horse  over  care¬ 
fully  and  said:  ‘^Suppose  you  try  feeding  him.” 
They  tried  it  and  the  horse  recovered.  This  fable 
teaches  that  many  times  the  preacher  finds  his 
church  in  a  weak  and  spiritless  condition.  It  gets 
on  his  conscience — or  more  accurately  speaking 
perhaps — on  his  nerves.  With  almost  frantic  zeal 
he  tries  all  the  remedies  proposed  by  theological 
and  sociological  experts.  One  after  another  he 
calls  in  the  peripatetic  evangelist,  the  Sunday-school 
specialist,  the  got-rich-quick  layman  with  his  lec¬ 
tures  on  stewardship — et  cetera — et  id  omne-genus 
— and  watches  in  vain  for  signs  of  spiritual  im¬ 
provement.  At  last  he  discovers — before  it  dies 
let  us  hope — that  what  the  church  needs  is  feeding. 
Paul  in  his  address  to  the  Ephesian  elders  (Acts 
20:  28)  said:  Feed  the  church  of  the  Lord  which 
he  hath  purchased  with  his  own  blood.”  Surely 


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51 


this  is  a  crowning  duty  of  the  pastor.  Whatever 
he  does  or  whatever  he  fails  to  do  he  must  not 
starve  the  flock.  We  have  preachers  who  are 
counted  experts  in  various  lines  of  ministerial  ac¬ 
tivity.  Some  noble,  some  ignoble.  But  they  seem 
sadly  indifferent  to  the  matter  of  feeding  the  flock. 
In  fact  they  think,  or  seem  to  think,  they  have 
found  something  better  for  the  sheep  than  feeding 
them.  Shall  we  enumerate  a  few  of  these  pre¬ 
sumptuous  pulpiteers  ? 

(a)  The  hullabaloo  preacher.  If  the  sheep  are 
quietly  browsing  on  the  meadow  or  peacefully 
chewing  the  cud  in  the  shade  this  shepherd  is  of 
all  men  most  miserable.  In  his  program  there  is 
no  time  and  no  place  for  sheep  to  graze  or  rumi¬ 
nate.  Let  us  not  misunderstand  each  other  here. 
There  is  no  intention  to  belittle  Christian  activity  or 
to  depreciate  the  pastor  who  is  skillful  in  eliciting 
it.  Neither  is  there  any  purpose  to  afford  comfort 
to  the  pastor  who  allows  his  church  to  waste  and 
wither  through  sheer  idleness.  But  I  do  wish  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  the  sheep  that  is  not  fed 
and  given  time  to  ruminate  its  food  will  not  be¬ 
cause  it  cannot  be  active  long.  You  may  scare  it 
up  and  with  one  kind  of  artificial  stimulant  or  an¬ 
other  keep  it  on  the  run  for  a  time,  but  sooner  or 
later  it  fags  and  falls.  Pastor  Truett  tells  of  the 
brother  preacher  who  was  always  on  the  jump — 
first  to  post  then  to  pillar.  He  would  hurry  up¬ 
town,  into  a  store,  strike  off  a  hasty  letter,  rush 


62 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


down  to  the  train  to  mail  it — thus  on  one  pretext 
or  another  meeting  every  passenger  train  during 
the  day.  One  day  in  the  presence  of  his  deacons 
lamenting  the  barrenness  of  his  ministry  he  wrung 
his  hands  and  said:  “What  more  can  I  do?  I 
have  done  all  I  know.  Can  you  brethren  suggest 
anything  else  I  can  do?*'  One  of  the  deacons 
quietly  and  perhaps  sarcastically  said:  “Suppose 
you  try  meeting  the  freight  trains,  too.’’  Many 
among  our  preachers  and  many  among  our  flocks 
need,  sadly  need,  an  awakening  of  zeal.  But  many 
also  need  to  learn  the  value  of  feeding  time  and 
to  form  the  feeding  habit.  Some  of  us  need  to 
learn  what  Jewett  meant  when  he  said:  “The 
quality  of  human  life  doth  not  consist  in  bustle  or 
activity  but  in  stillness,”  or  what  Lowell  meant 
when  he  said :  “  God  never  takes  needless  trouble. 
It  is  only  foolish  little  men  that  are  fond  of  fusses.” 
Or  better  still  let  us  learn  what  Isaiah  (30:  15-17) 
meant  when  he  represented  God  as  saying  to  the 
pursued  and  harassed  sheep  of  His  flock:  “In 
returning  and  rest  shall  ye  be  saved;  in  quietness 
and  confidence  shall  be  your  strength.  And  ye 
would  not,  but  ye  said  ‘  No,  for  we  will  flee  upon 
horses,’  therefore  shall  ye  flee,  and  ‘  We  will  ride 
upon  the  swift/  therefore  shall  they  that  pursue 
you  be  swift  .  .  .  till  ye  be  left  as  a  pole  upon 

the  top  of  a  mountain.”  What  a  striking  picture 
of  the  desolation  sure  to  follow  the  effort  to  sub¬ 
stitute  speed  for  ijie  restful,  quiet  feeding  time. 


THE  TITLES 


63 


(b)  The  gum-shoe  preacher.  Our  former 
brother  was  never  happy  unless  he  ‘‘  saw  a  great 
noise  ’’  and  counted  his  work  a  failure  if  he  could 
not  keep  everything  in  a  stir.  But  our  brother  of 
the  present  paragraph  finds  his  highest  ideal  of 
ministerial  success  in  keeping  everything  smooth 
and  quiet.  Don’t  talk  to  him  about  feeding  the 
sheep.  He  is  so  busy  oiling  machinery  not  neces¬ 
sary  to  a  sheepfold  that  he  has  no  time  to  prepare 
V  food  or  look  for  pasture.  There  is  notorious  ab¬ 
sence  of  fellowship  in  the  church.  There  is  gross 
worldliness  and  sin  on  the  part  of  its  membership, 
its  records  are  cumbered  with  the  names  of  many 
who  never  attend  its  services  and  do  not  respond 
to  its  ordinances  nor  believe  its  doctrines,  but  with 
a  ‘‘  hist  ”  and  a  ‘‘  hush-sh  ”  he  discourages  all  refer¬ 
ence  to  these  things  lest  it  bring  disturbance  into 
the  church.  Dr.  B.  H.  Carroll  was  very  deaf.  His 
wife  left  the  sleeping  baby  with  him  one  day  while 
she  went  shopping.  Since  the  baby  was  asleep,  he 
proceeded  to  immerse  himself  in  his  studies.  His 
brother,  J.  M.,  passing  along  the  street,  heard  the 
baby  crying  lustily  and  came  in  to  see  what  was 
wrong.  As  he  entered  the  good  Doctor  said: 
**  Don’t  make  a  noise,  Jimmie,  or  you  will  wake 
the  baby.”  Being  shown  that  the  baby  was  al¬ 
ready  awake  he  stood  helpless  and  said,  Jimmie, 
what  are  we  to  do  with  the  poor  little  thing?” 
Seeing  its  bottle  lying  on  the  bed  Jimmie  put  it  to 
the  baby’s  mouth  and  the  turmoil  ceased.  This 


54 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


story  teaches  that  the  gum-shoe  method  cannot 
permanently  prevent  nor  effectually  cure  a  church 
wrangle.  The  best  preventive  and  the  best  remedy 
in  the  case  of  a  church  wrangle  is  to  feed  the  flock. 
Even  a  pack  of  dogs  will  quit  fighting  if  you  put 
food  before  them.  The  right  sort  of  church  is  not 
built  by  managerial  skill — by  diplomacy  and  en¬ 
gineering  and  wire-pulling  and  gum-shoeing  and 
pussy-footing.  The  right  sort  of  church  is  built 
by  an  open,  frank,  outright,  thorough,  impartial 
feeding  of  the  people  out  of  the  Holy  Scriptures — 
rightly  dividing  the  Word  of  God. 

Take  this  group  of  Scriptures:  a  householder 
bringeth  forth  out  of  his  treasure  things  new  and 
old  (Matt.  13:  52)  ;  “  a  word  in  due  season  how 
good  it  is’’;  ‘Mhe  law  of  Jehovah  is  perfect  re¬ 
storing  the  soul.  The  testimpny  of  Jehovah  is 
sure  making  wise  the  simple.  The  precepts  of 
Jehovah  are  right  rejoicing  the  heart.  The  com¬ 
mandment  of  Jehovah  is  pure  enlightening  the 
eyes.”  Wherewith  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his 
way?  By  taking  heed  thereto  according  to  thy 
word.”  “  And  beginning  from  Moses  and  all  the 
prophets,  he  interpreted  to  them  in  all  the  Scrip¬ 
tures  the  things  concerning  himself.”  And  they 
said  one  to  another.  Was  not  our  heart  burning 
within  us  while  he  spake  to  us  in  the  way,  while 
he  opened  to  us  the  Scriptures !  ”  “  The  word  of 
his  grace  which  is  able  to  build  you  up.”  Preach 
the  word.”  These  and  scores  of  similar  passages 


THE  TITLES 


55 


show  the  value  of  God's  word  in  the  growing  of  a 
church.  If  a  preacher  once  gets  his  people  in  the 
habit  of  yielding  to  a  thus  saith  the  Lord  "  he 
will  find  church  management  greatly  simplified. 
But  if  he  proposes  to  keep  the  church  pacified  by 
administering  antiscriptural  or  even  extra-scrip¬ 
tural  narcotics  he  is  launching  his  ministerial  boat 
into  a  “  sea  of  trouble."  The  patient  may  lie  quiet 
for  a  while  under  gum-shoe  narcotics  but  when 
he  comes  out  of  his  stupor  he  is  always  more  or  less 
delirious  and  always  gives  the  doctor  trouble.  An 
open  policy  and  an  open  Bible  guarantee  a  sane  and 
useful  ministry. 

(c)  The  Buncombe  County  preacher.  Darling¬ 
ton  tells  us  that  the  word  “  buncombe  "  originated 
near  the  close  of  the  debate  on  the  famous  Mis¬ 
souri  question "  in  the  Sixteenth  Congress.  It 
was  then  used  by  Felix  Walker,  a  naive  old  moun¬ 
taineer  who  resided  at  Waynesville  in  Haywood 
County,  North  Carolina,  near  the  border  of  the  ad¬ 
jacent  county  of  Buncombe,  which  formed  a  part 
of  his  district.  The  old  man  rose  to  speak  while 
the  House  was  impatiently  calling  for  the  ‘‘  ques¬ 
tion,"  and  several  members  gathered  round  him 
begging  him  to  desist.  He  persevered,  however, 
declaring  that  the  people  of  his  district  expected  it 
and  that  he  was  bound  to  make  a  speech  for 
Buncombe.”  The  ingenuous  old  politician  has  his 
antitype  in  some  of  our  pulpits.  Mr.  Barnum  said 
the  world  loved  to  be  humbugged.  On  that  predi- 


66 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


cate  he  built  a  princely  fortune  and  achieved  in¬ 
ternational  fame.  But  a  circus  and  a  church  are 
not  identical.  Methods  that  will  build  a  circus  will 
ultimately  prove  fatal  to  a  church.  The  crass  sen¬ 
sationalist,  the  purveyor  of  ecclesiastical  humbug, 
will  run  well  for  a  season  but  sooner  or  later — 
usually  sooner — he  will  come  to  grief.  The 
preacher  puts  a  knife  to  his  throat  the  day  he  con¬ 
sents  to  do  spurious  and  superficial  work  under 
the  veneer  of  genuine.  History  bristles  with  con¬ 
crete  evidence  that  every  ecclesiastical  humbug  will 
be  unmasked.  Simon  the  sorcerer  had  his  Philip. 
Elymas  had  his  Paul.  Tatzel  had  his  Luther,  and 
it  is  not  treason  to  say  that  every  ministerial  hoax 
is  doomed  to  withering  exposure.  God  pity  the 
flock  when  the  shepherd  ceases  to  supply  natural 
and  wholesome  food  but  dopes  the  sheep  with  hurt¬ 
ful  and  artificial  stimulants. 

{d)  The  sheep-shearing  preacher.  He  is  the 
man  of  varying  value  who  makes  a  specialty  of 
money  raising.  Shearing  the  sheep  is  a  duty  and  a 
very  important  duty  of  the  shepherd.  But  if  the 
shepherd  makes  shearing  the  sheep  his  preeminent 
thought  and  care  he  will  find  the  wool  growing 
lighter  each  succeeding  season.  The  shepherd  who 
gets  the  most  wool  is  the  one  who  loves  his  sheep 
and  therefore  takes  the  best  care  of  them.  What 
you  get  off  a  sheep^s  back  will  be  measured  by 
what  you  put  into  his  mouth  and  not  by  the  ex¬ 
pert  handling  of  shears.  If  a  preacher  makes 


THE  TITLES 


57 


money  raising  the  summum  honum  of  his  ministry 
he  has  forfeited  every  other  good  thing  to  start 
with  and  will  soon  lose  that.  Such  a  man  will  get 
fine  collections  the  first  year  but  they  will  decrease 
with  steady  arithmetic  retrogression.  While 
the  preacher  who  faithfully  feeds  his  flock  out  of 
the  wholesome  storehouse  of  God’s  word  and  care¬ 
fully  shepherds  them  with  a  loving  heart  and  a 
firm  gentle  hand  will  find  that  the  wool  grows 
heavier  year  by  year.  If  you  want  to  be  a  money 
raiser  grow  a  great  soul  in  your  own  breast  and  a 
great  Christ-honouring  spirit  in  your  congregation. 
B.  H.  Carroll,  George  W.  Truett  and  L.  R.  Scar¬ 
borough  have  raised  more  money  by  direct  personal 
appeal  than  any  other  three  men  known  to  me. 
Yet  no  one  regards  money-raising  the  chief  handi¬ 
work  of  either.  They  are  posited  in  the  thought 
of  the  people  as  respectively,  Bible  teacher.  Pastor, 
Evangelist.  For  either  of  them  to  project  himself 
as  a  mere  money-raiser  would  prove  as  fatal  to  his. 
strength  as  Delilah  to  Samson.  My  young  brother, 
don’t  fail  to  shear  the  sheep,  but  the  heavy  yield 
will  follow  faithful  feeding.  As  a  wool  producer 
snapping  the  shears  is  a  poor  substitute  for  feeding 
the  sheep. 

(3)  But  a  third  New  Testament  mark  of  the 
shepherd  is  anxiety  for  the  sheep.  We  are  told 
(John  10:  12-13)  that  the  hireling  sees  the  sheep 
snatched  and  scattered  but  does  not  care — is  not 
concerned.  One  of  the  most  gracious  things  af- 


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firmed  of  God,  the  Chief  Shepherd,  is  that  He  does 
care  (1  Pet.  5:7).  Was  it  Madame  de  StaH  who 
said,  “  Sympathy  is  your  pain  in  my  heart  ’’  ? 
The  pain  in  the  heart  of  the  humblest  member  of 
the  flock  is  to  the  true  pastor  a  pain  in  his  own.  The 
genuine  preacher  is  in  a  general  way  touched  with 
the  infirmity  of  men  but  in  a  special  sense  and  in  a 
very  different  way  he  travails  for  those  for  whom 
God  has  made  him  responsible  as  a  shepherd.  The 
highest  honour  that  can  be  conferred  by  men  upon 
a  fellow-man  is  to  be  the  chosen  pastor  of  a  little 
flock  of  God's  children.  The  lowest  recreancy  is  to 
betray  that  trust  or  be  indifferent  to  it.  Once  con¬ 
vince  your  congregation  that  you  sincerely  seri¬ 
ously  labour  for  their  welfare  and  you  thereby 
cover  a  multitude  of  crudities  and  shortcomings. 
The  church  will  patiently  tolerate  nearly  anything 
if  the  preacher  shows  an  unselfish  shepherd’s  anxi¬ 
ety  for  their  good.  Once  justify  an  interrogation 
after  that  essential  item  and  from  that  day  all  your 
brilliant  performances  are  to  them  sounding  brass 
and  clanging  cymbal.  A  pastor  without  anxiety’s 
unutterable  travail  over  his  flock  is  an  abomination 
of  desolation  holding  a  position  that  he  ought  not. 
If  a  pastor  never  loses  sleep  over  his  flock  he  will 
soon  lose  sleep  because  he  has  none.  The  highest 
tribute  that  can  be  paid  mortal  man  is  to  say  that 
he  has  the  shepherd’s  heart.  The  noblest  quality 
of  the  shepherd’s  heart  is  its  constant  anxiety  for 
the  flock. 


THE  TITLES 


59 


(4)  A  fourth  essential  to  a  good  shepherd  is 
intimate  personal  relation  with  the  sheep.  Jesus, 
the  preeminent  pastor,  said:  “  I  am  the  good  shep¬ 
herd  (pastor).  I  know  mine  own  and  mine  own 
know  me.’’  The  more  intimate  the  relation  be¬ 
tween  the  right  sort  of  pastor  and  his  people  the 
more  joy  and  profit  that  relation  affords.  There 
is  a  theory  abroad  that  the  pastor  cannot  afford  to 
be  on  intimate  terms  with  his  people  lest  familiarity 
breed  contempt.  The  answer  is  that  it  will  depend 
on  the  character  of  the  pastor.  The  prophet  of 
Khorassan  wore  a  veil  to  hide  his  monstrous  face. 
But  the  pastor  is  not  supposed  to  have  moral  de¬ 
formities  which  he  must  cover  under  the  veil  of 
isolation.  It  was  never  necessary  with  Jesus  nor 
with  Paul  nor  with  any  true  man.  A  sorcerer,  a 
wizard,  a  magician,  an  astrologer,  a  spiritualistic 
medium  and  a  fake  preacher  may  all  need  to 
shroud  themselves  in  mysterious  isolation  lest  the 
fraud  they  seek  to  practice  be  exposed.  But  the 
gospel  preacher  with  a  genuine  message  and  an 
honest  heart  and  a  straight  life  needs  no  such  sub¬ 
terfuge.  If  he  is  a  true  man  bearing  a  true  story 
to  the  hearts  of  men,  he  not  only  has  no  need  to 
fear  his  people  but  should  diligently  cultivate  the 
most  intimate  touch  with  them.  His  hours  of 
study  and  prayer  should,  of  course,  be  faithfully 
guarded,  but  he  should  at  the  same  time  seek  the 
most  vital  fellowship  with  the  heart  life  of  his 
people. 


60 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


There  are  two  classes  of  our  preachers  who  are 
very  largely  denied  this  element  of  power, 
(a)  The  city  pastor.  His  membership  is  so  large 
that  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  know  them  well 
enough  to  be  a  shepherd  to  them.  All  churches, 
but  particularly  city  churches,  need  pastors  more 
than  they  need  preachers.  When  a  church  reaches 
a  membership  of  more  than  five  hundred  it  is  too 
large  for  one  shepherd.  It  either  ought  to  send 
out  a  “  swarm  ”  to  start  another  church  or  adopt 
the  scripturally  authorized  plan  of  a  plurality  of 
pastors.  A  man  can  preach  to  a  thousand  people, 
but  no  one  man  can  be  pastor  of  a  thousand  people. 
It  is  delightful  to  find  myself  in  accord  with  such 
an  eminent  and  experienced  city  pastor  as  Dr.  C. 
E.  Jefferson,  who  says:  “Every  city  church  of  a 
thousand  ought  to  have  a  staff  of  pastors  and  each 
one  ought  to  do  the  thing  he  can  do  the  best.  We 
ought  to  utilize  in  the  ministry  men  of  the  most 
diverse  endowments;  we  impoverish  our  church 
life  by  limiting  the  ministry  practically  to  men  of  a 
single  type.  Nearly  all  our  city  churches  are  run 
on  the  old  village  plan ;  one  man  is  supposed  to  do 
everything.  No  wonder  they  do  not  cope  success¬ 
fully  with  city  problems.’^  Most  of  our  city 
churches  are  undertaking  the  impossible  thing  of 
doing  their  work  through  Sunday’s  pulpit  and  Sun¬ 
day-school  ministration.  Dr.  Jefferson  continues: 
“  What  our  city  churches  need  more  than  all  things 
else  are  pastors.  A  city  church  like  a  city  hospital 


THE  TITLES 


61 


or  a  city  school  is  an  expensive  institution  and  lay¬ 
men  must  be  educated  to  pour  their  money  into  it 
with  a  generosity  hitherto  unknown.  It  is  because 
Christian  laymen  as  a  rule  do  not  know  the  value 
of  pastoral  service  that  most  of  our  city  churches 
are  to-day  fighting  a  losing  battle.'’ 

(b)  But  the  man  who  has  the  most  pathetic 
struggle  in  seeking  to  be  a  pastor  to  his  people  is 
the  “  fourth-time  "  preacher — the  preacher  who 
gives  one  Sunday  out  of  the  month  to  each  of  four 
churches,  usually  widely  separated.  Whether  a 
church  is  large  or  small,  it  is  not  in  the  power  of 
man  to  be  a  pastor  to  it  and  spend  only  two  days 
out  of  each  month  on  the  field.  It  is  better  than 
no  pastoral  service,  but  it  is  far  less  than  the  situa¬ 
tion  demands.  If  our  village  and  open  country 
churches  are  to  measure  up  to  their  responsibilities 
and  their  possibilities  even  approximately  there 
must  be  found  some  way  to  improve  the  quality 
and  continuity  of  pastoral  service  given  them.  It 
would  perhaps  not  be  profitable  to  try  to  locate  the 
blame — it  is  doubtless  not  all  in  one  place.  One 
may,  however,  venture  the  opinion  that  with  rea¬ 
sonable  liberality  on  the  part  of  the  church  and 
reasonable  adaptibility  on  the  part  of  the  preacher, 
many,  if  not  most  of  our  country  and  village 
churches  could  maintain  a  full-time  pastorate.  But 
as  preachers  let  us  not  flatter  ourselves  that  the 
blame  is  wholly  at  the  door  of  unfavourable  condi¬ 
tions.  In  spite  of  this  handicap  the  fourth-time 


62 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


preacher  in  many  cases  could  do  better  if  he  would 
.try.  Usually  he  could  give  more  time  in  the  field 
if  he  would.  He  could  be  more  energetic  in  the 
work,  more  sympathetic  with  the  work  and  better 
equipped  for  the  work  if  he  tried.  In  the  last  dec¬ 
ade  there  has  been  unusual  interest  in  the  country 
life  problem.  A  number  of  very  inspiring  and  in¬ 
forming  books  have  been  "written  on  the  subject. 
Many  valuable  movements  for  country  life  better¬ 
ment  are  being  projected.  The  country  preacher 
is  culpably  careless,  almost  criminally  unfaithful,  if 
by  reading,  association,  investigation  and  practice 
he  is  not  keeping  in  touch  with  these  modern  coun¬ 
try  life  discussions  and  experiments. 

(5)  Another  quality  required  in  the  good  shep¬ 
herd  (pastor)  is  sacrificial  service.  Jesus  says 
“  the  good  shepherd  layeth  down  his  life  for  his 
sheep'’  (John  10:  14).  It  is  true  that  in  these 
words  He  referred  primarily  to  Himself,  but  no 
one  doubts  that  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  herein  pro¬ 
posed  applies  undiluted  and  undiminished  to  the 
true  pastor  in  every  age.  The  preacher  who  is  not 
willing  to  suffer  for  and  with  his  people  is  a  hire¬ 
ling  and  not  a  shepherd.  One  sacrificial,  self-for¬ 
getful  pastor  in  a  community  is  a  more  convincing 
argument  for  Christianity  than  a  whole  library 
of  apologetics.  One  self-seeking,  sheep-fleecing 
preacher  in  a  neighbourhood  will  do  more  to  invali¬ 
date  Christianity  than  a  ton  of  infidel  literature. 
Look  for  a  moment  at  the  selfish  preacher.  Every 


THE  TITLES 


63 


road  in  his  psychological  cogitations  leads  to  his 
salary.  Every  movement  of  his  cunning  hand  is 
directed  toward  his  own  comfort  and  his  personal 
interest.  He  deftly  manipulates  poundings  ”  and 
other  special  donations,  in  addition  to  his  regular 
pay.  He  cajoles  sentimental  sisters  into  raising  a 
special  fund  to  send  him  luxuriously  to  the  national 
religious  conventions  or  the  world’s  fair  or  on  a 
“  much  needed  ?  ”  summer  vacation  while  the  peo¬ 
ple  who  give  the  money  toil  and  sweat  at  home. 
He  wheedles  money  out  of  his  people  for  himself 
on  this  pretext  and  that.  He  borrows  money  from 
his  brethren  who  cannot  afford  to  lend  it  and  fre¬ 
quently  never  pays  it  back.  He  forgets  that  he 
was  sent  out  to  minister  and  not  to  be  ministered 
unto.  He  measures  a  church  by  what  it  pays  the 
preacher — the  comfort  and  luxury  it  affords  him. 
To  call  such  a  man  pastor  is  a  contradiction  in 
terms.  The  selfish  man  is  not,  and  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  cannot  be  a  pastor.  He  is  a  parasite — 
eating  the  people’s  bread  for  nought.  He  is  a 
leech  sucking  the  blood  of  those  who  trust  him. 
It  is  gladly  admitted  that  such  conduct  is  not  the 
rule  among  preachers,  but  it  is  claimed  that  there 
is  enough  of  it  to  make  any  observant  genuine  man 
sick  at  heart.  Let  every  man  who  reads  these 
words  join  humbly  with  the  man  who  writes  them 
in  the  Apostles’  question  at  the  Last  Supper, 
“  Lord,  is  it  I  ?  ”  The  religions  of  the  past  have 
met  their  Waterloo  in  the  selfishness  of  their 


64 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


priests.  Christianity  will  never  perish  from  the 
earth.  The  nebulous  thing  that  we  call  Christen¬ 
dom  will  go  to  pieces  and  be  cast  in  the  junk  pile, 
but  Christianity  will  never  fail.  Every  student  of 
history  knows  that  Christendom’s  corruption  and 
deflection  and  degeneration  in  the  past  have  re¬ 
sulted  from  corrupt  and  selfish  leadership.  That 
is  her  menace  now  and  that  will  be  her  menance 
until  the  end  of  time.  It  is  a  sad  day  for  the  flock 
when  the  shepherd  feeds  himself  and  not  the 
sheep — when  he  cares  for  himself  and  neglects  the 
sheep — when  the  hungry  sheep  look  up  and  are 
not  fed.’’ 

The  vital  importance  of  this  suggestion  has  not 
only  its  bearing  on  the  country  church  itself — as 
important  as  that  is  admitted  to  be.  It  finds  per¬ 
haps  its  larger  meaning  in  the  fact  that  the  country 
church  is  to  furnish  bone  and  sinew  and  leadership 
to  town  and  city  churches.  Let  our  country 
churches  die  or  lose  that  stalwart  virility  and  see 
how  speedily  and  how  inevitably  fatal  results  will 
follow  in  every  city  in  the  land.  City  churches  are 
mighty  in  altruistic  activities,  but  for  many  reasons 
they  do  not  possess  the  character-making  qualities 
of  the  rugged  country  church.  The  surest  way  to 
take  care  of  our  cities  is  to  take  care  of  their  foun¬ 
tainhead— the  rural  neighbourhood. 


IV 


THE  CALL  TO  THE  OFFICE 


Who  hath  called  us  zvith  an  holy  calling/^ 

— 2  Timothy  1:  9. 


IN  discussing  this  topic,  we  will  undertake  to 
answer  thoughtfully  four  cardinal  questions. 

1.  Are  men  divinely  impressed  with  the 
ministry,  and  definitely  called  into  it  by  the  direct, 
immediate  impact  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  is  his 
entrance  upon  this  work,  as  in  other  callings,  due 
to  personal  choice,  human  influence,  or  providen¬ 
tial  circumstances  ? 

2.  If  this  call  is  by  the  immediate  impact  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  by  what  mental  processes,  human  in¬ 
fluences  or  providential  conditions  may  it  be  inter¬ 
preted  and  authenticated?  Or  how  does  a  man 
know  he  is  called  to  preach? 

3.  How  may  a  church  hinder  an  answer  to  its 
prayer  for  more  preachers? 

4.  What  effect  will  a  man’s  view  of  the  call  to 
the  ministry  have  upon  his  character  and  efficiency 
as  a  preacher? 

I.  In  the  first  place  then,  let  us  affirm  and 
undertake  to  prove  that  men  are  divinely  impressed 

65 


66 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


with  the  ministry,  and  definitely  called  into  it  by 
the  direct  impact  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

1.  The  argument  from  analogy.  The  head  of 
every  human  government  appoints  directly  his  am¬ 
bassadors  and  official  messengers.  From  the  very 
nature  of  government  we  will  expect  this  to  be  the 
case.  If  we  find  it,  and  would  naturally  expect  to 
find  it  in  human  government,  it  raises  a  strong  pre¬ 
sumption  that  we  would  find  it  also  in  divine  gov¬ 
ernment.  In  the  Scriptures,  the  Gospel  preacher 
is  called  a  Herald,  an  ambassador.  Unless  he  had 
specific  divine  calling  and  appointment,  his  going 
on  such  a  mission  would  hardly  receive  scriptural 
approval.  ‘‘  Does  not  right  reason  demand  that  he 
who  declares  himself  an  ambassador  for  Christ,  so 
that  it  is  as  if  God  spoke  by  him  and  he  were  in  the 
King’s  stead,  must  hold  a  commission  consciously 
from  his  divine  sovereign  or  be  guilty  of  blasphe¬ 
mous  presumption?  ”  (Herrick  Johnson). 

2.  The  argument  from  testimony.  Tradition 
is  often  misleading  and  a  doctrine  drawn  from  it  is 
often  false.  Yet  the  views  of  the  fathers  on  this 
subject  may  help  us  to  reach  the  truth.  Here  are 
quotations  from  a  few  of  them: 

Bernard  (Burgundy,  1091-1153):  “He  who  is 
called  to  instruct  souls  is  called  of  God  and  not  by 
his  own  ambitions,  and  what  is  this  call  but  an  in¬ 
ward  incentive  of  love  soliciting  us  to  be  zealous 
for  the  salvation  of  our  brothers.” 

Luther  (German,  1483-1546) :  “Await  God’s 


THE  CALL 


67 


call.  Meantime  be  satisfied.  Yea,  though  thou 
wast  wiser  than  Solomon  and  Daniel,  yet,  unless 
thou  art  called  avoid  preaching  as  thou  wouldst 
hell  itself.’^ 

Bishop  Burnett  (English,  1643-1716):  I  wish 
it  were  well  considered  by  all  clerics  what  it  is  to 
run  without  being  called,  or  sent,  and  so  to  thrust 
one's  self  into  the  vineyard  without  being  called  or 
sent.”  And  again:  ‘‘Do  you  trust  that  you  are 
inwardly  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  take  upon 
you  this  office  ?  Certainly  the  answer  to  this  ought 
to  be  well  considered,  for  if  one  says  ‘  I  trust  so  ’ 
that  yet  knows  nothing  of  any  such  motion  and  can 
give  no  account  of  it,  lies  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
makes  his  first  approach  to  the  altar  with  a  lie  on 
his  lips  and  that  not  to  man  but  to  God.”  And 
further :  “  Our  church  must  be  construed  to  intend 
by  this  that  it  is  only  Christ  that  sends,  and  that 
the  Bishops  are  only  His  ministers  to  pronounce 
His  mission.” 

Massillon  (French,  1663-1742):  “If  you  do 
not  feel  in  yourself  a  desire  to  be  employed  as  an 
ambassador  of  God,  judge  ye  yourselves  whether 
ye  are  called  into  the  Lord's  vineyard.  God  im¬ 
plants  a  love  in  the  heart  for  the  service  to  which 
He  calls.” 

Vinet  (Swiss,  1797-1837):  “We  must  then  be 
called  of  God.  A  call  to  the  ministry  which  is 
exercised  in  the  name  of  God  and  in  which  He  is 
represented  can  emanate  only  from  Him.  The 


68 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


business  here,  in  fact,  is  not  ours,  it  is  another’s, 
and  that  is  God.  In  a  word,  it  is  a  ministry. 
Whether  external  or  internal  the  call  ought  to  be 
divine.” 

John  Wesley  (English,  1703-1791):  ‘‘Every 
minister,  before  he  undertakes  to  preach  the  Gospel 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  ought  to  be  able  to  say 
‘  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me  because  He 
hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  Gospel.’  ” 

Church  Rituals :  Every  church  that  has  any  sort 
of  ritual  or  printed  order  of  service  has  in  the  for¬ 
mula  for  setting  apart  men  to  the  ministry  some 
expression  in  which  the  candidate  avows  in  sub¬ 
stance  his  belief  that  he  is  inwardly  moved  and 
definitely  called  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  enter  upon 
this  office. 

These  historical  citations  have  no  value  as  evi¬ 
dence  other  than  to  show  what,  along  the  centuries, 
has  been  Christianity’s  interpretation  of  the  Scrip¬ 
ture  teaching  on  this  subject.  For  this  purpose 
alone  they  are  here  introduced.  This  testimony  is 
not  intended  as  proof  of  the  doctrine,  but  to  show 
that  it  is  not  a  new  doctrine,  nor  a  doctrine  advo¬ 
cated  by  some  small  mystical  segment  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  but  that  it  is  a  doctrine  believed  and  taught 
in  all  ages,  in  all  countries  and  in  all  creeds,  and  to 
raise  the  presumption  that  since  our  view  has  been 
the  almost  universal  interpretation  of  Scripture,  it 
is  probably  the  correct  one. 

3.  The  argument  from  Scripture.  We  come 


THE  CALL 


69 


now  to  the  heart  of  the  discussion.  What  saith 
the  Scriptures?  To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony. 
We  will  first  take  some  Scripture  examples  of  men 
called  into  spiritual  service  and  then  give  two  or 
three  Scriptures  containing  a  general  statement  of 
the  doctrine. 

(1)  Some  Scripture  examples.  As  these  cases 
are  cited,  bear  in  mind  that  the  object  is  to 
show  that  all  along  God  has  definitely  and  di¬ 
rectly  called  those  who  were  to  be  specially  set 
apart  for  spiritual  service,  (a)  Aaron  and  his 
sons  (Ex.  28:  1):  “Take  thou  unto  thee  Aaron 
thy  brother  and  his  sons  with  him  from  among  the 
children  of  Israel  that  he  may  minister  unto  me  in 
the  Priest's  office,  even  Aaron,  Nadab  and  Abihu, 
Eleazar,  and  Ithamar,  Aaron's  sons."  (1  Chron. 
23:  13)  :  “And  Aaron  was  separated  that  he  should 
sanctify  the  most  holy  thing,  he  and  his  sons  for¬ 
ever,  to  burn  incense  before  Jehovah,  to  minister 
unto  him  and  to  bless  in  his  name  forever."  (Heb. 
5:4):  “And  no  man  taketh  this  honour  to  himself, 
but  when  he  is  called  of  God  even  as  was  Aaron." 
(b)  Elisha  (1  Kings  19:  16-19) :  “And  Elisha,  the 
son  of  Shaphat  of  Abalmeholah,  shalt  thou  anoint 
to  be  prophet  in  thy  room.  .  .  .  So  he  departed 
thence  and  found  Elisha,  the  son  of  Shaphat  who 
was  plowing  with  twelve  yoke  of  oxen  before  him 
and  he  with  the  twelfth;  and  Elijah  passed  over 
unto  him  and  cast  his  mantle  upon  him.  .  .  . 

Then  he  arose  and  went  after  Elijah  and  minis- 


70 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


tered  unto  him.’*  (c)  Isaiah  (Isa.  6:  8-9)  :  ‘‘And 
I  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  saying:  Whom  shall 
I  send  and  who  will  go  for  us  ?  Then  I  said,  Here 
am  I ;  send  me.  And  he  said,  Go,  and  tell  this  peo¬ 
ple.  .  .  .”  (d)  Jeremiah  (Jer.  1:  5)  :  “  Now  the 
word  of  Jehovah  came  unto  me,  saying.  Before  I 
formed  thee  in  the  belly  I  knew  thee  and  before 
thou  earnest  forth  out  of  the  womb  I  sanctified 
thee;  I  have  appointed  thee  a  prophet  unto  the  na¬ 
tions.”  (Jer.  3:  15) :  “I  will  give  my  pastors  ac¬ 
cording  to  my  own  heart,  which  shall  feed  you 
with  knowledge  and  understanding.”  (e)  Jonah 
(Jonah  1:  1):  “Now  the  word  of  Jehovah  came 
unto  Jonah,  the  son  of  Amittai,  saying,  Arise,  go  to 
Nineveh  that  great  city  and  cry  against  it  for  their 
wickedness  is  come  up  before  me.” 

Let  us  now  consider  some  selected  examples 
from  Christ’s  personal  ministry,  (a)  Peter  and 
Andrew  (Matt.  4:  18-20) :  “  And  walking  by  the 
sea  of  Galilee  he  saw  two  brothers,  Simon,  who  is 
called  Peter,  and  Andrew,  his  brother,  casting  a 
net  into  the  sea,  and  he  saith  unto  them.  Come  ye 
after  me  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men,  and 
they  straightway  left  their  nets  and  followed  him.” 

(b)  Matthew  (Matt.  9:  9) :  “  And  as  Jesus  passed 
by  from  thence  he  saw  a  man  called  Matthew  sit¬ 
ting  at  the  place  of  toll,  and  he  saith  unto  him, 
Follow  me.  And  he  arose  and  followed  him.” 

(c)  The  entire  twelve  (Matt.  10:  1-7):  “And  he 
called  unto  him  the  twelve  disciples  and  gave  them 


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71 


authority  over  unclean  spirits  to  cast  them  out  and 
to  heal  all  manner  of  disease,  and  all  manner  of 
sickness.  .  .  .  Those  twelve  Jesus  sent  forth 

and  charged  them,  saying  ...  as  ye  go, 
preach.”  (d)  The  seventy  (Luke  10:  1):  ^'After 
these  things  the  Lord  appointed  seventy  others 
and  sent  them  two  and  two  before  his  face  into 
every  city  and  place  whither  he  himself  was  about 
to  come.” 

But  lest  the  brother  who  is  specially  strong  on 

dispensational  truth  ”  should  object  that  our  New 
Testament  examples  are  taken  from  the  period  of 
our  Lord’s  personal  ministry  and  do  not  there¬ 
fore  apply  to  the  Holy  Spirit  dispensation  begin¬ 
ning  with  Pentecost,  let  us  take  a  few  post-resur¬ 
rection  passages  showing  how  in  this  dispensation, 
as  in  all  other  dispensations,  men  get  into  the  min¬ 
istry  and  are  authenticated  for  its  work  by  a  direct 
call  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  (a)  Matthias  (Acts 
1:23-25):  ‘‘And  they  appointed  two,  Joseph 
and  Matthias.  And  they  prayed  and  said:  Thou, 
Lord,  knowest  the  hearts  of  all  men,  show  of  these 
two  the  one  that  thou  hast  chosen  to  take  the  place 
in  this  ministry  and  apostleship  from  which  Judas 
fell  away.”  (b)  Peter  (Acts  10:42):  “And  he 
commanded  us  to  preach  unto  the  people  and  to 
testify  that  it  was  he  who  was  ordained  of  God  to 
be  the  judge  of  quick  and  dead.”  (c)  Paul  (Acts 
22:  12-15):  “And  one  Ananias,  a  devout  man, 
according  to  the  law,  well  reported  of  by  all  the 


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Jews  that  dwelt  there,  came  unto  me  and  standing 
by  me  said  unto  me,  Brother  Saul,  receive  thy 
sight,  and  in  that  very  hour  I  looked  upon  him. 
And  he  said.  The  God  of  our  fathers  hath  ap¬ 
pointed  thee  to  know  his  will,  and  to  see  the 
Righteous  One  and  to  hear  a  voice  from  his  mouth. 
For  thou  shalt  be  a  witness  for  him  unto  all  men 
of  what  thou  hast  seen  and  heard.”  {d)  Barnabas 
(Acts  13:2):  ‘‘And  as  they  ministered  to  the 
Lord  and  fasted,  the  Holy  Spirit  said.  Separate 
me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I 
have  called  them.  Then  when  they  had  fasted  and 
prayed  and  laid  their  hands  on  them  they  sent 
them  away.  So  they  being  sent  forth  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  went  down  to  Seleucia.”  {e)  Archippus 
(Col.  4:  17):  “And  say  to  Archippus,  Take  heed 
to  the  ministry  which  thou  hast  received  in  the 
Lord  that  thou  fulfill  it.”  (/)  The  Ephesian  Eld¬ 
ers  (Acts  20:28):  “Take  heed  unto  yourselves 
and  to  all  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
hath  made  you  bishops  to  feed  the  church  of  the 
Lord  which  he  purchased  with  his  own  blood.” 

(2)  Having  thus  given  some  Scripture  examples 
showing  that  God  calls  and  sends  men  into  the  min¬ 
istry,  let  us  now  consider  two  or  three  passages 
containing  a  general  statement  of  the  doctrine, 
(a)  The  pastoral  office  is  a  direct  divine  gift. 
Ephesians  4:  7-11:  “  But  unto  each  one  of  us  was 
the  grace  given  according  to  the  measure  of  the  gift 
of  Christ.  Wherefore  he  saith.  When  he  ascended 


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73 


on  high  he  led  captivity  captive  and  gave  gifts 
unto  men.  And  he  gave  some  to  be  apostles;  and 
some  prophets;  and  some  evangelists;  and  some 
pastors  and  teachers  for  the  perfecting  of  the 
saints,  unto  the  -work  of  ministering  unto  the 
building  up  of  the  body  of  Christ.”  (b)  To  the 
tasks  of  this  office  men  are  directly  sent  of  God. 
Matthew  9:  36-38:  “But  when  he  saw  the  multi¬ 
tudes  he  was  moved  with  compassion  for  them  be¬ 
cause  they  were  distressed  and  scattered  as  sheep 
not  having  a  shepherd.  Then  saith  he  unto  his 
disciples,  The  harvest  indeed  is  great  but  the  la¬ 
bourers  are  few.  Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of 
the  harvest  that  he  send  forth  labourers  into  his 
harvest.”  (c)  For  the  duties  of  the  office  men  are 
definitely  anointed  of  God.  Isaiah  61:  1,  and  Luke 
4:  18-19:  “The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me, 
because  he  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 
to  the  poor.  He  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  release 
to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the 
blind.  To  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised.  To 
proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord.” 

II.  If  this  call  is  by  the  immediate  impact  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  upon  man’s  spirit,  by  what  mental 
processes,  human  influences  or  providential  condi¬ 
tions  may  it  be  interpreted  and  authenticated  ?  Or, 
in  plainer  English,  how  may  a  man  know  he  is 
called  to  preach?  What  are  the  evidences  of  this 
call? 

1.  A  sense  of  duty.  Paul  said  (1  Cor. 


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9 :  16-17) :  ‘‘For  though  I  preach  the  gospel  I  have 
nothing  to  glory  of;  for  necessity  is  laid  upon  me; 
woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel.  For  if  I  do 
this  of  mine  own  will  I  have  a  reward;  but  if  not 
of  mine  own  will  I  have  a  stewardship  intrusted  to 
me.”  When  the  council  (Acts  4:  18)  forbade 
Peter  and  John  to  speak  or  teach  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  these  conscience-bound  disciples  answered, 
“  Whether  it  is  right  to  hearken  unto  you  rather 
than  unto  God  judge  ye,  for  we  cannot  but  speak 
the  things  which  we  saw  and  heard.”  With  our 
most  useful  preachers  the  ministry  has  not  been 
selected  as  the  most  inviting  calling.  Their  tastes 
and  natural  inclinations  are  all  against  the  min¬ 
istry  as  a  life-work,  but  they  are  driven  to  it  by  a 
compelling  sense  of  duty.  If  the  testimony  of 
these  men  may  be  taken  at  par,  most  of  them  spend 
months  and  often  years  of  bitter  struggle  before 
yielding  to  this  imperious  voice.  It  is  nothing  to 
a  man’s  credit  to  have  fought  thus  against  the 
will  of  God,  but  a  ministry  assumed  after  such 
soul  travail  is  more  likely  to  be  devoted  and  stead¬ 
fast  than  if  entered  on  a  sudden  impulse. 

2.  A  desire  for  the  work  of  the  ministry.  Paul 
said  (1  Tim.  3:  1):  “If  a  man  longeth  for  the 
office  of  a  bishop  he  desireth  a  good  work.”  There 
is  only  an  apparent  inconsistency  between  the  de¬ 
sire  to  be  a  preacher  and  stubbornly  resisting  the 
conviction  that  one  ought  to  be  a  preacher.  If 
any  preacher  will  analyze  his  own  experience  he 


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76 


will  probably  find  these  two  paradoxical  mental 
processes  have  worked  simultaneously  in  his  own 
heart.  But  let  a  man  be  careful  that  this  longing 
for  the  ministry  does  not  grow  out  of  spurious 
motives.  Does  he  long  for  it  because  from  his 
superficial  view  the  ministry  offers  an  easy  life? 
Does  he  desire  it  because  it  seems  to  give  ample 
opportunity  for  the  indulgence  of  literary  tastes? 
Does  he  seek  it  because  it  seems  to  give  the  best 
field  for  the  display  of  his  oratorical  talents,  real 
or  imaginary?  Does  he  covet  it  because  of  the 
social  advantage  it  is  supposed  to  offer  ?  All  these 
are  untempered  mortar  and  the  ministerial  super¬ 
structure  built  with  them  is  doomed  to  an  early 
and  ignominious  fall.  But  if  the  desire  for  the 
ministry  grows  out  of  a  hunger  to  rescue  lost 
souls,  to  build  them  up  for  the  glory  of  God  and 
to  promote  the  reign  of  Christ  on  earth,  that  min¬ 
istry  will  probably  be  permanent,  joyous,  fruitful, 
triumphant. 

3.  Consciousness  of  qualification  for  it.  This 
is  a  delicate  matter  and  we  must  be  careful  lest  we 
reach  false  conclusions.  Perhaps  a  man  is  no¬ 
where  so  blind  and  incompetent  as  when  he  comes 
to  analyze  and  evaluate  his  own  mental  powers. 
Everywhere  may  be  seen  wrecks  and  dismantled 
hulks  of  human  life  floating  aimless  and  helpless 
out  to  sea  because,  misjudging  their  own  gifts, 
men  refused  to  do  what  they  could  do  and  frittered 
away  time  and  opportunity  and  strength  in  the  vain 


76 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


effort  to  do  what  they  could  not  do.  But  after  all 
is  said  it  yet  remains  true  that  among  the  other 
things  that  determine  a  man’s  choice  of  a  calling, 
there  ought  to  enter  the  modest  conviction  that  he 
is,  or  may  become,  reasonably  qualified  to  perform 
the  duties  implied  in  that  calling — ‘‘  If  he  thinks 
he  can,  he  can:  if  he  thinks  he  can’t,  he  can’t  ”  is 
like  most  of  our  aphorisms  not  more  than  half  a 
truth,  but  it  does  contain  enough  truth  to  restrain 
a  man  from  assuming  a  task  for  which  he  feels 
himself  neither  actually  nor  potentially  qualified. 
Paul’s  sense  of  duty  to  preach  and  his  sense  of 
woe  if  he  did  not  preach  grew  largely  out  of  the 
modest  conviction  that  he  could  preach. 

4.  The  judgment  of  the  Church.  While  the 
testimony  of  this  witness  is  by  no  means  conclu¬ 
sive,  it  yet  has  some  probative  value.  If  it  should 
become  the  practically  unanimous  opinion  of  a 
church  that  one  of  its  members  bore  the  New 
Testament  marks  of  a  preacher,  it  ought  to  pro¬ 
duce  on  his  mind  a  very  strong  presumption  that 
his  brethren  were  correctly  interpreting  the  will  of 
God  concerning  him.  It  rarely  happens  that  a 
church  discovering  the  gifts  proposes  the  ministry 
to  a  man  who  has  given  no  sign  of  his  own  in¬ 
clinations  in  that  direction.  In  the  few  cases  that 
have  fallen  within  my  limited  observation,  subse¬ 
quent  events  have  proven  that  the  church  was  right. 
I  would  not,  however,  put  as  much  emphasis  upon 
the  opposition  of  the  church  to  a  man’s  entering 


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77 


the  ministry.  My  reason  is  the  natural  tendency 
to  discount  the  home  boy  in  accordance  with  the 
psychological  principle  enunciated  by  Jesus  when 
He  spoke  of  a  prophet  having  more  recognition 
everywhere  else  than  in  his  own  country  and  among 
his  home  people.  It  is  often  difficult  for  an  un¬ 
seeing  church  to  recognize  the  sculptor’s  potential 
angel  in  the  block  of  stone  when  a  commonplace 
boy  brought  up  in  the  neighbourhood  begins  to 
manifest  a  yearning  for  the  ministry.  The  judg¬ 
ment  of  his  church  touching  a  young  man’s  aspira¬ 
tions  toward  the  ministry  is  not  infallible  but  it 
does  have  enough  weight  to  demand  that  he  give  it 
careful  consideration  before  reaching  his  conclu¬ 
sion. 

5.  Providential  circumstances.  Bereavement, 
failure  of  a  business  enterprise,  unsought  demands 
for  ministerial  service,  a  passing  suggestion  by  a 
friend  and  many  such  things  have  been  used  to  in¬ 
terpret  duty  and  the  will  of  God  to  a  wavering 
soul.  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan,  affords  a  strik¬ 
ing  illustration  of  this  point.  He  was  prsetor  of 
Liguria  and  Amelia.  The  bishopric  of  Milan  had 
been  vacant  for  a  long  time.  All  efforts  to  fill  it 
failed  because  of  the  controversy  between  the 
Athanasians  and  the  Aryans.  Feeling  was  so  tense 
that  at  one  of  the  meetings  a  riot  broke  out  in  the 
church.  Governor  Ambrose  came  in  as  a  civil 
officer  to  quell  the  riot,  when  a  little  boy  cried  out : 
“  Ambrose,  bishop !  Ambrose,  bishop !  ”  The  peo- 


78 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


pie  took  up  the  cry  and  the  council  then  and  there 
elected  him  bishop.  He  had  never  dreamed  of 
filling  such  an  office,  but  considering  all  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  he  finally  yielded  to  it  as  the  call  of 
God.  Of  all  the  preachers  of  the  early  centuries 
none  was  more  devoted  and  useful.  He  imme¬ 
diately  relinquished  his  high  civil  office,  distributed 
his  vast  wealth  for  benevolent  purposes  and  de¬ 
voted  himself  to  spiritual  things  with  tireless  zeal. 
It  is  true  that  one  may  easily  become  a  superstitious 
fanatic  by  giving  to  every  passing  occurrence  a 
spiritual  interpretation.  It  is  equally  true,  how¬ 
ever,  that  we  may  fatally  miss  the  divine  will  by 
not  having  an  ear  attent  to  the  voice  of  God  in 
His  providential  dealing. 

6.  A  degree  of  success  in  it.  In  1  Corinthians 
4:  2,  Paul  teaches  that  faithfulness  and  not  success 
is  the  true  criterion  for  the  preacher.  What  preacher 
has  not  in  times  of  spiritual  barrenness  comforted 
himself  with  that  passage?  But  if  the  preacher’s 
labours  continue  unfruitful  he  may  well  question 
the  genuineness  of  his  call.  If  God  calls  a  man  to 
preach  He  will  call  somebody  to  hear  him,  and 
somebody  who  will  want  to  hear  him  and  some¬ 
body  who  will  be  helped  when  he  hears  him.  It  is 
true  that  in  the  ministry  there  are  gifts  differ¬ 
ing,”  but  if  after  fair  trial  a  man  finds  no  place 
where  he  can  work  and  no  sphere  where  he  can 
succeed,  he  ought  to  accept  it  as  a  providential 
indication  that  he  answered  some  other  man’s  call. 


THE  CALL 


79 


Either  he  has  not  been  called  to  the  work  or  there 
is  something  wrong  in  his  life.  He  perhaps  be¬ 
longs  to  that  class  to  whom  one  of  our  naive 
evangelists  refers  when  he  says:  “  A  slow  mule  and 
a  hot  sun  has  called  many  a  man  to  preach.’’  Vic¬ 
tor  Hugo  said  Napoleon  had  to  be  removed  be¬ 
cause  he  embarrassed  God.  I  have  often  won¬ 
dered  if  the  chronic  churchless  preacher  does  not 
do  that  same  thing. 

HI.  In  Matthew  9:  38,  Jesus  said,  “Pray  ye 
therefore  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  send 
forth  labourers  into  his  harvest.”  How  do  the 
churches  hinder  the  answer  to  this  prayer  ? 

1.  By  not  offering  the  prayer.  How  often  has 
the  reader  heard  a  man  pray  in  obedience  to  this 
command  of  Jesus?  When  and  how  many  times 
has  he  known  the  church  called  together  to  render 
specific  obedience  to  this  command?  We  hear 
prayers  for  the  salvation  of  sinners,  for  the  re¬ 
vival  of  the  church,  for  the  healing  of  the  sick, 
for  God’s  protecting  providence  for  absent  loved 
ones,  and  for  all  forms  of  temporal  blessing,  but 
how  rarely  have  we  prayed  or  heard  others  pray 
that  God  will  thrust  out  labourers  into  His  harvest. 
In  every  quarter  we  hear  complaint  of  the  dearth 
of  ministerial  recruits.  Might  not  God  rebuke  this 
complaint  by  saying:  “Ye  have  not  because  ye  ask 
not,”  Are  vjt  not  one  and  all  guilty  of  disobedi¬ 
ence  to  this  specific  command  to  pray  for  labour¬ 
ers? 


80 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


2.  By  discounting  the  home  hoy.  It  is  not  easy 
for  the  average  church  member  to  believe  that  the 
familiar  commonplace  neighbour  boy  can  possibly 
be  God’s  choice  for  the  high  office  of  the  ministry. 
Some  one  has  said:  “  No  man  is  a  hero  to  his  own 
valet.”  The  same  psychological  principle  is  sug¬ 
gested  in  the  threadbare  proverbs:  “Distance 
lends  enchantment  to  the  view,”  and  “  Familiarity 
breeds  contempt.”  This  tendency  to  discredit  the 
home  boy  is  illustrated  in  what  the  people  said 
about  Jesus  in  rebuttal  of  some  of  His  mighty 
works.  “  Is  not  this  the  carpenter’s  son?  Is  not 
his  mother  called  Mary?  And  his  brethren  and 
his  sisters  are  they  not  all  with  us?  ”  One  of  the 
most  distinguished  ministers  in  this  country  says 
that  when  about  eighteen  he  went  timidly  to  his 
father  and  told  him  that  he  felt  called  to  preach. 
Whereupon  the  father  rebuked  him  saying:  “  Dis¬ 
miss  that  from  your  mind ;  none  of  our  people  have 
ever  been  preachers.  We  are  just  plain  trades¬ 
men.  You  are  just  as  ordinary  as  the  rest  of  us 
and  God  does  not  mean  you  to  be  a  preacher.”  He 
w^as  so  discouraged  by  this  unsympathetic  attitude 
of  his  father  that  for  months  he  smothered  his 
heart’s  conviction.  When  at  last  he  could  keep 
quiet  no  longer  he  went  trembling  to  his  mother 
and  told  her  of  his  impressions  and  convictions. 
She  threw  her  arms  about  his  neck  and  said:  “  My 
prayer  is  answered!  Oh,  thank  God  that  I  should 
be  counted  worthy  to  bear  and  bring  up  one  who 


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81 


is  to  preach  the  gospel  of  my  Lord !  ”  The  father 
in  this  story  is  the  type  of  the  church  as  it  is.  The 
mother  the  type  of  the  church  as  it  ought  to  be. 

3.  By  a  failure  to  encourage  him  and  cooperate 
zmth  him  in  securing  equipment  for  his  work.  In 
the  average  church,  after  the  young  preacher  has 
run  the  gauntlet  of  indifference  and  the  church  has 
somewhat  reluctantly  “  liberated  him  to  preach,” 
he  finds  little  encouragement  to  prepare  himself 
for  the  work.  If  the  brethren  think  about  it  at  all 
they  think  he  has  about  all  the  education  he  needs, 
or  if  he  needs  more  he  ought  to  get  it  without  en¬ 
couragement  or  cooperation  from  them.  In  glori¬ 
ous  contrast  to  this  customary  callous  attitude  is 
the  story  told  by  one  of  our  former  students.  He 
says  that  the  day  he  was  licensed  to  preach  in  the 
little  country  church  a  good  brother,  poor  and  un¬ 
educated,  arose  and  said:  Now  if  Brother  Charlie 
is  going  to  preach  he  ought  to  get  an  education. 
Poor  like  the  rest  of  us,  he  can’t  very  well  get  it 
by  himself.  Pll  divide  what  my  little  farm  makes 
next  year  to  help  him  through  Baylor  University.” 
Others  followed  his  example ;  they  helped  him  one 
year  and  after  that  Charlie  was  able  to  make  his 
own  way  through  school.  All  about  us  there  are 
noble  young  men  who  have  felt  impressed  with  the 
duty  of  preaching.  But  uneducated  and  seeing  no 
way  of  getting  an  education  they  have  stifled  these 
impressions.  If  we  pray  God  to  call  men  into  this 
work  are  we  not  hindering  the  answer  to  our 


82 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


prayer  if  we  fail  to  encourage  them  and  cooperate 
with  them  in  the  important  matter  of  securing  the 
best  possible  equipment  for  the  work? 

IV.  What  effect  will  a  man’s  view  of  his  call 
to  the  ministry  have  upon  his  character  and 
efficiency?  If  a  man  feels  that  he  has  been  directly 
called  of  God,  definitely  summoned  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  preach  the  Gospel,  it  will  give  a  romantic 
dignity,  a  knightly  chivalry  and  sacrificial  devotion 
otherwise  impossible.  On  this  point  Herrick  John¬ 
son  forcibly  says:  ‘Hf  he  feels  that  God  has  called 
him  into  the  ministry  in  a  way  in  which  men  are 
called  to  no  other  pursuit — then  at  once  and  for¬ 
ever  it  is  to  him  peculiarly  sacred,  a  divine  work 
not  to  be  undertaken  and  prosecuted  save  with  an 
active  and  absolute  consecration  and  not  to  be 
secularized  or  made  subservient  to  selfish  interests 
or  ambitions  at  the  peril  of  his  soul.  But  if  he  is 
there,  prompted  by  considerations  of  ease  or  liter¬ 
ary  indulgence  or  oratorical  ambition  or  social  pos¬ 
sibilities.  .  .  .  Oh,  the  pity  of  it  all!  And  the 

shame !  And  the  sin !  But  he  who  can  say:  ‘  Lord, 
I  heard  Thy  call ;  it  was  Thou  that  didst  send  me’ — 
what  can  he  fear  to  do  or  dare  or  suffer?  ”  It  was 
this  solemn  sense  of  a  divine  call  that  led  Dr.  B.  H. 
Carroll  to  say  on  the  subject:  I  made  a  solemn 
covenant  with  God  that  while  I  lived  I  would  never 
have  any  other  business  or  profession  or  calling 
than  to  preach  the  Gospel — to  give  myself  wholly 
to  that,  ‘  sink  or  swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or  per- 


THE  CALL 


83 


ish/  to  turn  back  to  any  other  never,  never,  never 
forever/^  If  a  man  goes  into  the  ministry  because 
he  wants  to,  while  in  it  he  will  conduct  himself  as 
he  wants  to  and  go  out  of  it  when  he  wants  to,  but 
if  he  realizes  that  he  is  put  there  by  the  sovereign 
call  of  God  he  will  try  to  please  God  while  in  it, 
and  he  will  stay  in  it  till  he  receives  a  divine  sum¬ 
mons  to  give  it  up. 


V 

THE  PERMANENCE  OF  THE  OFFICE 

Go  ye  info  all  the  world  and  preach  .  .  . 

till  the  consuniniation  of  the  age” — Mark  16:  15; 
Matthew  28 :  20. 

IS  the  preacher  a  permanent  functionary  in  the 
church  or  has  he,  because  of  changing  con¬ 
ditions,  about  served  his  day?  If  his  position 
is  permanent,  will  it  continue  to  carry  its  old-time 
influence  and  power?  Will  he  be  in  the  future  as 
in  the  past  the  mightiest  master  of  the  public  mind 
— or  is  he  to  become  an  offlcial  figurehead — a  mere 
Samson  in  a  treadmill  shorn  of  his  strength,  cease¬ 
lessly  performing,  but  getting  nowhere?  Is  the 
pastoral  office  now  on  the  wane  and  doomed  to 
ultimate  desuetude  or  is  it  divinely  endowed  with 
an  inherent  resiliency  that  guarantees  its  permanent 
position  and  power? 

In  the  preceding  lecture  two  or  three  basic  prin¬ 
ciples  were  announced  that  would  imply  in  a  gen¬ 
eral  way  the  permanence  of  this  office.  In  this 
lecture  we  will  elaborate  those  general  propositions 
giving  in  detail  some  of  the  arguments  on  both 

84 


THE  PEEMANENCE 


85 


sides  of  the  question.  Let  us  meet  the  issue 
squarely,  and  weigh  the  arguments  fairly. 

1.  Some  Things  That  Seem  to  Threaten  the 
Permanence  of  the  Office 

In  this  division,  we  shall  discuss  the  menace  of 
some’  inherent  weaknesses  on  the  part  of  those  who 
fill  the  office  and  the  portent  of  some  unpropitious 
atmospheres  that  surround  it. 

1.  Some  inherent  weaknesses  of  those  who  fill 
the  office.  The  most  serious  menace  to  the  perma¬ 
nence  of  the  pastoral  office  is  the  weakness  of  its  in¬ 
cumbents.  The  first,  and  perhaps  most  alarming 
pastoral  weakness  to  be  mentioned  is : 

(1)  Dotiht  in  the  pulpit.  If  the  arbitrary  cock¬ 
sureness  of  ignorance  is  sometimes  laughable,  the 
impotent  uncertainty  and  imbecile  hesitancy  often 
affected  by  so-called  scholarship  is  always  pathetic. 
The  people  love  a  bold  preacher.  Intuitively  they 
despise  a  parson  much-afraid. 

If  a  crude  empiric  will  preach  a  half  truth,  with 
no  doubt  in  his  own  mind  as  to  its  validity,  with 
boldness  and  sincerity  in  its  delivery,  the  people 
will  crown  him  teacher.  But  if  a  cultured  gentle¬ 
man  will  preach  a  whole  truth  falteringly,  hedged 
about  with  interrogation  points,  and  spoken  with  a 
rising  inflection,  the  people  will  dethrone  him 
though  he  were  an  angel  of  light.  Those  who  see 
or  think  they  see  a  growing  laxity  in  holding  and 
limpness  in  proclaiming  the  great  spiritual  doc- 


86 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


trines  of  revelation,  regard  it  an  ominous  sign  for 
the  future  of  the  pastoral  office.  They  say  this 
office  will  not  survive  the  loss  of  men  who  know 
and  know  they  know.  They  tell  us  that  men  of 
that  sort  in  the  pulpit  are  growing  perilously 
scarce;  that  the  men  who  preach  their  doubts  in¬ 
stead  of  the  great  doctrines,  or  who,  if  they  preach 
the  great  doctrines,  do  it  in  a  subdued  and  apolo¬ 
getic  way  are  increasing  at  a  dangerous  rate ;  that 
the  only  archbishop  the  people  want  in  the  pulpit 
is  the  arch  believer;  that  the  people  will  maintain 
only  the  ministry  that  can  cure  their  doubts  rather 
than  feed  them ;  that  if  they  cannot  get  that  brand 
they  will  have  none.  A  minister  once  asked  David 
Garrick:  ‘‘How  is  it  that  you  speak  fiction  to 
people  and  they  are  moved,  while  I  speak  eternal 
truth  and  they  are  not  moved  ?  ’’  Garrick  replied : 
“  It  is  because  you  speak  truth  as  if  it  were  fiction, 
while  I  speak  fiction  as  if  it  were  truth.’’  The 
preacher  ought  to  believe  his  message  and  deliver 
it  like  one  who  believes  it,  or  he  ought  to  get  out. 
Humanly  speaking,  Christianity’s  future  is  in  the 
hands  of  her  preachers.  Would  that  future  be 
more  virile  and  masterful  and  triumphant  if  the 
office  were  summarily  relieved  of  all  its  timorous 
and  time-serving  incumbents  even  though  it  meant 
a  Gideon’s  decrease  ? 

(2)  The  abuse  of  hooks.  More  and  more  the 
preacher  is  being  fed  on  books.  More  and  more 
his  preaching  is  a  restatement  of  what  others  have 


THE  PEBMAKENCE 


87 


thought  and  discovered.  He  is  fast  becoming  the 
purveyor  of  warmed-over  foods;  the  vendor  of 
second-hand  goods;  the  public  caterer  of  theolog¬ 
ical  hash.  He  lives  in  an  atmosphere  of  books 
written  by  men  long  since  dead  and  his  sermons 
are  clothed  in  the  cerements  of  the  grave.  Being 
constantly  fed  on  concentrated  and  predigested 
pabulum,  he  has  lost  the  habit  of  masticating  and 
digesting  strong  meat  on  his  own  account.  He 
thinks  in  an  atmosphere  where  nobody  has  lived 
for  at  least  a  hundred  years,  and  talks  in  a  vocabu¬ 
lary  appropriate  thereto.  This  arraignment  of  the 
preacher  is,  in  my  judgment,  altogether  too  severe, 
but  this  is  in  substance  what  his  critics — ^keen, 
thoughtful  and  perhaps  a  trifle  censorious, — are 
saying  of  him  throughout  the  land.  There  is 
enough  truth  in  it  to  make  every  conscientious 
preacher  sit  up  and  take  notice.  In  our  school 
days,  the  boy  who  undertook  to  ride  a  “  pony  ” 
through  his  Latin  course  did  not  have  much  stand¬ 
ing,  but  he  was  a  brilliant  success  compared  to  the 
twentieth  century  preacher  who  undertakes  to  hob¬ 
ble  through  life  on  his  library  crutches.  Those 
who  have  analyzed  the  case  say  that  a  chief  ele¬ 
ment  of  “  Billy  ”  Sunday’s  strength  is  in  the  fact 
that,  while  his  sermons  give  evidence  of  careful 
study  and  preparation,  they  do  not  smell  of  the 
library,  and  while  his  doctrines  and  propositions  are 
accurately  and  transparently  stated,  they  are  not  in 
the  language  of  the  dead  theologian,  but  in  the 


88 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


vernacular  of  the  living  street.  What  a  mighty 
thing  is  a  vocabulary!  Spurgeon  caught  the  ear 
of  the  world’s  masses  by  the  use  of  homespun 
English.  His  workaday  words  were  earthen  ves¬ 
sels,  but  they  bore  the  heavenly  treasure  to  multi¬ 
tudes  of  impoverished  souls.  A  venerable 
parishioner  of  the  days  of  my  youth  once  said  to 
me:  “  If  I  were  a  preacher  I  would  preach  one  big 
sermon,  have  it  printed  and  pass  it  around 
wherever  I  went  to  let  the  folks  know  I  could  do 
it.  After  that  I  would  just  talk  right  out  to  the 
people  in  words  they  could  understand.”  It  did 
not  occur  to  me  then,  but  looking  backward,  I  won¬ 
der  if  the  good  man  thus  timidly  sought  to  correct 
his  young  pastor’s  tendency  to  sesquipedalian 
pyrotechnics — which,  being  interpreted,  means 
“  hot  air  ”  in  big  words. 

When  Jesus  came  He  found  the  religious  teach¬ 
ers  walking  about  in  dead  men’s  clothes  frittering 
away  valuable  time  in  petty  inconsequentialities, 
balancing  Hillel  against  Shammai  to  establish  the 
proper  width  of  a  phylactery  and  disputing  one  with 
another  always  in  classic  language  on  what  the 
fathers  taught  concerning  the  question  of  how 
many  angels  could  sit  comfortably  on  the  point  of 
a  needle.  All  this  learned  attention  to  tweedle¬ 
dum  and  tweedle-dee  while  the  wolves  of  leprosy 
and  blindness  and  epilepsy  and  paralysis  and  de¬ 
moniacal  possession  and  poverty  and  Roman  op¬ 
pression  harried  the  sheep  committed  to  their  care. 


THE  PEEMANENCE 


89 


In  the  sermon  on  the  mount  Jesus  put  Himself  in 
sharp  contrast  with  them  by  brushing  aside  these 
traditional  anachronous  forms  of  speech  and 
methods  of  reasoning  and  going  at  once  to  original 
fundamental  principles.  Observe  His  three  steps 
Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  ” — traditionalism 
exposed.  “  From  the  beginning  it  hath  not  been 
so  '' — fundamental  principles  invoked.  ‘‘  And  I 
say  unto  you  ’’ — a  fresh  modern  view  of  a  tradi¬ 
tion — obscured  elemental  truth  announced.  Such 
was  the  method  and  such  the  charm  of  Frederick 
W.  Robertson,  and  such  will  be  the  method  of  the 
modern  pulpit,  if  it  will  maintain  its  prestige  and 
power.  Please  notice  that  the  subject  of  this  para¬ 
graph  is  the  abuse  of  books.’’  We  are  facing 
the  west  now,  but  there  is  an  east.  In  another  lec¬ 
ture  we  will  face  the  rising  sun,  and  talk  about 
the  use  of  books  ” — a  glorious  theme. 

(3)  Professionalism.  Amending  the  ritual  of 
our  Episcopal  brethren,  I  would  have  every  church 
pray,  From  the  machine-made  professional 
preacher,  good  Lord,  deliver  us.”  Colleges  and 
seminaries  are  sinners,  but  not  the  only  sinners  in 
this  matter.  There  is  danger  that  seven  years  of 
professional  training  will  turn  the  young  preacher 
out  more  a  machine  and  less  a  man.  The  secretary 
of  the  faculty  of  Southwestern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary  was  one  day  notifying  his  colleagues  by 
telephone  of  a  faculty  meeting.  In  calling  my 
house  the  negro  cook,  no  one  else  being  at  home, 


90 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


answered  the  telephone.  When  I  came  in  to  lunch 
she  announced  “  Dat  ar  ’Fesser  Conner  he  done 
’phone  down  here  for  you  to  come  up  to  de  fact’ry 
at  two  o’clock.”  Formerly  she  had  called  the 
Seminary  de  temple.”  From  that  day  it  was  in 
her  patois  “  de  factory.”  The  last  notion  of  that 
darkey  was  worse  than  the  first.  A  theological 
seminary  ought  not  to  be  a  factory  where  big 
original  independent  souls  are  whittled  down  to  fit 
a  regulation  groove.  It  ought  to  be  rather  a  tem¬ 
ple  in  whose  holy  of  holies  these  glowing  young 
souls  meet  God  and  on  whose  altar-stairs  they 
touch  the  garment-hem  of  spirit-filled  prophets 
with  the  gift  of  arousing  latent  powers,  and  stir¬ 
ring  smouldering  ambitions  and  quickening  chival¬ 
rous  ideals.  The  best  theological  professor  is  the 
man  who  in  a  given  time  can  grow  in  his  student 
the  most  man — the  most  high-minded,  chivalrous 
godlike  man.  A  theological  faculty  is  likest  God 
when,  fronting  its  tasks,  it  says:  ‘‘Let  us  make 
man.”  But  facing  the  east  let  us  not  deny  the 
west.  You  cannot  grow  much  man  in  a  young 
preacher’s  anatomy  till  you  have  animated  him 
with  a  passion  for  honest,  earnest,  painstaking, 
persistent  study.  Emotional  lectures  and  exclama¬ 
tory  exhortations  and  unctuous  expostulations  may 
please  and  even  stir  the  student  for  a  passing  mo¬ 
ment,  but  these  do  not  grow  character.  Genius  is 
at  yon  end  of  hard  work. 

But  theological  seminaries  have  no  exclusive 


THE  PEEMANENCE 


91 


franchise  for  the  production  of  the  professional 
machine-made  preacher.  A  young  acquaintance  of 
mine,  who  scouted  theological  training,  when  be¬ 
ing  congratulated  by  a  friend  on  his  entering  the 
ministry  said:  Yes,  I’m  in  it.  It  is  my  chosen 
profession,  and  I  never  expect  to  stop  till  I’m  a 
Doctor  of  Divinity.”  He  talked  about  rising  in 
the  profession  and  the  promotion  of  this  man  and 
that  as  glib  as  a  young  army  officer.  My  own  no¬ 
tion  is  that  a  few  months  in  a  real  theological  sem¬ 
inary  would  have  shown  him  the  difference  between 
a  calling  and  a  profession, — between  doing  a  work 
and  getting  a  position.  It  might  not  be  amiss  to 
say  parenthetically  that  he  soon  gave  up  his 
chosen  profession  ”  to  become  a  cheap-john  actor 
in  a  third-rate  theatre.  The  last  time  I  heard  of 
him  he  was  window  decorator  in  a  millinery 
store!  The  professional  preacher  grades  the 
churches  by  what  they  pay  and  his  brother  preach¬ 
ers  by  what  they  get.  He  talks  about  a  pull  ” 
with  men  higher  up,  and  calls  his  pastorate  his 
job.”  When  he  is  asked  to  resign,  as  he  usually 
is,  he  has  ‘‘  lost  his  job,”  and  opens  an  organized, 
systematic  campaign  for  another.  My  prayer  is 
that  he  may  never  get  it.  This  professional 
preacher,  this  denatured  shepherd,  this  quack  in 
cloth,  veneered  with  sanctimonious  theory  ” 
threatens,  seriously  threatens,  the  permanency  of 
the  pastoral  office.  The  people  are  saying  that  we 
have  too  many  professions.  Once  let  the  pastoral 


92 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


office  degenerate  to  the  level  of  a  mere  profession, 
and  the  people  will  abolish  it,  and  divide  its  sup¬ 
posed  responsibilities  between  the  doctor,  the  school 
teacher,  the  political  reformer  and  also  the  under¬ 
taker. 

(4)  Money  craze,  A  glaring  instance  here  and 
there  of  a  preacher  “  greedy  of  filthy  lucre  ’’  has 
led  some  pessimistic  souls  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  pastoral  office  is  about  to  be  swamped  in  the 
money  maelstrom.  The  modern  high  cost  of  liv¬ 
ing  and  the  cost  of  modern  high  living  both  tempt 
the  preacher  to  subordinate  the  eternal  to  the  tem¬ 
poral — the  spiritual  to  the  financial.  It  is  a  sad 
confession,  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  many  in 
our  day  are  yielding  to  this  insidious  temptation. 
The  critic  says  that  the  preacher  hears  the  loudest 
call  from  the  place  that  offers  the  largest  salary. 
This  is  often  true.  Sometimes  it  is  right  that  it 
should  be  true.  Opportunities  of  usefulness  being 
equal  why  should  not  a  preacher  go  to  the  place 
that  offers  the  best  comfort  for  his  family,  the 
best  education  for  his  children,  and  the  best  pro¬ 
tection  for  old  age?  A  man  does  not  necessarily 
become  a  fool  when  he  enters  the  ministry.  But 
having  said  this,  let  us  hasten  to  say  that  the 
preacher  who  turns  his  ministry  into  a  money-mak¬ 
ing  machine,  or  who  for  money’s  sake  modifies  his 
course  or  his  message  a  hair’s  breadth,  is  con¬ 
tributing  his  part  toward  undermining  the  office 
into  which  he  claims  to  be  called.  What  could  sap 


THE  PEEMANENCE 


93 


preaching  of  its  romance  more  effectually  than  a 
hireling  ministry  ? 

(5)  Wanderlust.  Nothing  disgusts  the  thought¬ 
ful  layman  with  his  preacher  brother  more  than 
his  nomadic  habits.  A  preacher  friend  of  mine  in 
an  eastern  city  tells  of  one  of  his  lady  members 
who  went  to  call  on  another  lady  member,  on  the 
occasion  of  her  return  from  a  trip  to  Europe.  She 
was  met  at  the  door  by  a  coloured  woman  who  sur¬ 
prised  her  with  the  information  that  the  lady  of 
the  house  had  just  gone  to  New  York.  Why,” 
said  the  lady,  “  I  thought  she  had  just  returned 
from  Europe.”  ‘‘  Yassum,  she  done  jus’  git  back 
from  Urup,  but  you  know  she  dat  kind  o’  ’ooman 
what  all  time  want  to  be  whar  she  ain’t.”  A  lay¬ 
man  sitting  by  whispered  to  me,  The  average 
preacher  is  like  that.”  I  confessed  and  denied  not, 
but  confessed  that  he  was  right.  The  people  are 
saying  that  if  God  had  anything  to  do  with  putting 
men  into  the  pastoral  office  He  would  make  the 
relation  a  little  more  sacred  and  permanent.  The 
more  they  are  led  to  believe  that  the  pastor  in  his 
official  relation  is  fickle,  unstable,  unreliable,  the 
more  they  will  doubt  the  divine  origin  of  the  office. 
Faith  in  its  divine  origin  gone,  their  willingness 
to  perpetuate  it  goes  also.  If  every  pastorate  were 
entered  with  a  distinct  conviction  that  this  rela¬ 
tion  is  of  God  the  pastoral  tether  would  be  per¬ 
ceptibly  lengthened,  and  the  people’s  respect  for 
the  office  immeasurably  deepened.  But  while  de- 


94 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


ploring  the  instability  of  the  pastoral  relation,  we 
must  not  forget  that  this  look  at  the  east  has  its 
western  complement.  A  pastorate  may  be  too 
long.  We  have  no  New  Testament  examples  of 
long  pastorates  except  perhaps  James  at  Jerusalem. 
During  his  long  pastorate,  the  church  nearly  died 
of  dry  rot.  And  Antioch,  under  the  brief,  but 
brilliant  joint-pastorate  of  Saul  and  Barnabas  dis¬ 
placed  her  as  queen  of  the  churches.  Now  and 
then  the  newspapers  mirate  over  this  or  that  pas¬ 
torate  covering  a  period  of  thirty  or  forty  or  fifty 
years.  But  usually  when  you  analyze  the  case  you 
find  that  the  church  would  have  been  better  if  the 
1  pastorate  had  been  shorter.  The  proper  length  of 
a  pastorate  cannot  be  determined  by  the  calendar. 
When  the  proper  proportionate  length  of  a  man’s 
legs  was  a  topic  of  conversation,  Abraham  Lincoln 
said  he  thought  they  ought  to  be  about  long  enough 
to  touch  the  ground.  A  pastorate  ought  to  con¬ 
tinue  just  as  long  as  the  relation  is  evidently  blessed 
of  God.  Whatever  may  be  the  personal  wish  on 
either  side,  it  ought  not  to  go  a  day  beyond  that, 
nor  stop  a  day  short  of  that.  My  observation  has 
been  that  when  a  preacher  begins  to  plume  himself 
on  account  of  his  long  pastorate,  the  church  needs 
a  change.  Some  preachers  do  not  stay  long 
enough;  some  stay  too  long.  More,  far  more  of 
the  former  than  the  latter.  Seeking  the  will  of 
God,  let  us  avoid  both  Scylla  and  Charybdis. 

(6)  Petty  politics.  Playing  politics  is  about  the 


THE  PEEMANENCE 


95 


cheapest  business  that  ever  engaged  the  talents  of 
a  preacher.  The  critics  are  charging  that  the 
preachers  are  becoming  political  wire-pullers  for 
personal  promotion.  So  long  as  the  ministry  is 
recruited  from  flesh  and  blood,  we  may  expect  to 
find  a  modicum  of  every  human  weakness  in  its 
ranks.  A  lifelong  intimate  and  somewhat  exten¬ 
sive  acquaintance  with  preachers  leads  me  to  be¬ 
lieve  that  this  folly  is  not  common  among  them. 

II.  Some  Unpropitious  Atmospheres  Sur¬ 
rounding  THE  Office 

These  are  not  all  bad.  Some  of  the  best  things 
in  our  modern  life  are  in  their  very  nature  friendly 
competitors  of  the  pulpit. 

(1)  Cheap,  abundant  and  wholesome  literature. 
The  very  best  literature  is  in  everybody’s  reach. 
Even  religious  people  are  feeling  that  church-go¬ 
ing  is  no  longer  necessary,  since  religious  instruc¬ 
tion  and  inspiration  just  as  good  and  even  better 
can  be  had  at  home.  This  subdivision  does  not 
include  the  preacher’s  chief  competitor — the  Sun¬ 
day  newspaper.  Nor  does  it  describe  it.  It  is 
cheap  enough,  altogether  too  abundant,  but  not 
very  wholesome. 

(2)  The  developed  educational  and  social  life  of 
the  church.  The  time  was  when  the  pulpit  with  its 
accessories  was  almost  the  sole  channel  of  church 
activity.  Now  apart  from  the  pulpit,  the  church 
life  functions  in  the  Sunday  school,  the  young  peo- 


96 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


pie’s  organizations,  the  women’s  societies,  the  men’s 
brotherhoods,  etc.  In  nearly  every  church  there 
are  those  who  are  active  in  one  or  another  of  these 
organizations  and  do  not  care  for  the  ministrations 
of  the  pulpit.  If  you  have  any  doubt  here,  listen 
next  Sunday  to  the  preacher’s  pathetic  plea  with 
his  Sunday-school  forces  to  remain  for  church,” 
and  then  notice  how  many  of  them,  indifferent  to 
his  appeal,  file  out  and  go  hence. 

(3)  The  multiplicity  of  other  more  or  less  whole¬ 
some  opportunities  of  entertainment  and  instruc¬ 
tion,  The  time  was  when  the  preacher  was  the 
intellectual  centre  of  the  community.  There  was 
only  the  pulpit  and  the  schoolroom  and  a  meagre 
literature,  and  the  preacher  was  master  in  the  three 
spheres.  He  has  lost  the  schoolroom,  he  is  pro¬ 
ducing  only  a  modicum  of  the  world’s  wholesome 
or  even  religious  literature,  and  such  forces  as  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  lyceum  courses,  and  the  modern 
layman’s  movements  are  contesting  his  franchise 
on  the  pulpit.  Thus,  the  critics  say,  modern  life 
movements  are  crowding  the  preacher  into  a  cor¬ 
ner,  and  thus  they  say  the  pastoral  office  will  soon 
become  an  empty  shell  that  nobody  will  want. 

(4)  The  multiplicity  of  lodges  and  other  benev¬ 
olent  orders.  Sam  Jones  said,  The  Mooses,  the 
Elks  and  the  Eagles  have  organized  and  I  am  ex¬ 
pecting  the  buzzards  to  organize  next.”  In  depre¬ 
cating  the  multitude  of  these  orders,  the  preachers 
usually  begin  with  the  apologetic  remark:  I  have 


THE  PEEMANENCE 


97 


nothing  to  say  against  secret  orders.’’  I  have  not 
either  except  that  I  cannot  think  of  a  single  good 
reason  why  a  preacher  or  any  other  church  mem¬ 
ber  should  belong  to  one.  In  years  of  observation, 
I  have  rarely  known  a  man  who  was  high  up  and 
active  in  a  lodge  who  was  at  the  same  time  high 
up  and  active  in  his  church.  I  have  never  known 
a  preacher — not  one — who  was  high  up  and  active 
in  lodge  life,  who  stood  high  among  the  churches 
as  a  man  of  marked  spiritual  power.  When  I  was 
a  young  preacher,  they  told  me  that  if  I  would 
join  the  lodges  it  would  widen  my  influence  for 
Christ.  I  tried  it,  but  it  did  not  ‘‘  pan  out.”  Con¬ 
fessedly,  lodge  men  themselves  being  witnesses,  the 
lodge  is  secondary  to  the  church.  Lodge  men  ad¬ 
mire  most,  and  are  influenced  most  by  the  preacher 
who  is  so  busy  with  the  main  thing  that  he  does 
not  find  time  for  the  secondary.  They  are  not 
fighting  them,  and  many  may  nominally  hold  mem¬ 
bership  in  them,  but  it  is  an  axiom  that  the  typical 
New  Testament  preachers  are  not  active  in  the 
lodges.  The  best  way  for  the  preacher  to  meet 
this  menace  of  the  lodge  is  to  let  others  join  them 
if  they  will  or  must  while  he  gives  himself  con¬ 
tinually  to  prayer  and  the  ministry  of  the  word.” 
The  preacher  can  use  all  his  cars  on  the  main  line 
and  then  have  more  track  space  than  he  can  fill. 
The  wise  young  preacher  will  avoid  all  side  tracks. 

(5)  The  increasing  expense  of  attending  public 
worship.  In  cities  (and  half  our  people  are  living 


98 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


in  cities  now)  if  a  man  has  a  wife  and  three  chil¬ 
dren  it  costs  him  fifty  cents  car-fare  to  hear  a 
sermon.  Then  the  cost  of  dressing  for  church  is 
constantly  increasing.  The  average  woman  is  not 
willing  to  go  if  she  and  her  children  cannot  dress 
as  well  as  others.  Again  the  financial  budget  neces¬ 
sary  to  support  the  church  in  its  local  activities  and 
in  its  benevolent  and  missionary  enterprises  is  in¬ 
creasing  year  by  year.  The  average  man  is  not 
willing  to  go  if  he  cannot  contribute  liberally  to 
these  frequent  financial  calls. 

III.  Some  Things  That  Assure  Its 
Permanence 

The  sky  is  not  falling  every  time  a  cabbage  leaf 
shadows  a  gosling’s  path.  The  pastoral  office  will 
be  here  smiling  at  its  critics  when  their  ‘‘  dust 
shall  be  found  stopping  a  bung-hole.’’  This  con¬ 
clusion  finds  its  basis  in  the  following  considera¬ 
tions  : 

1.  In  terms  used  when  the  office  was  estab¬ 
lished — Go  preach,  go  make  disciples,  go  baptize, 
go  into  the  whole  world  and  I  am  with  you  to  the 
consummation  of  this  age.”  Jesus  foresaw  all  the 
adverse  conditions  we  have  been  considering,  and 
yet  looking  to  the  end  of  the  age,  He  saw  the 
gospel  preacher  still  busy  with  his  task,  blessed  by 
divine  presence  and  endued  with  divine  power. 

2.  In  the  scrupulous  attention  given  to  the 
equipment  of  its  incumbents,  Jesus  gave  three  years 
of  almost  undivided  attention  to  the  training  of  the 


THE  PEEMANENCE 


99 


twelve.  One-fourth  of  Paul's  letters  are  on  the 
subject  of  the  pastoral  office.  The  deacon's  office 
was  created  that  men  in  this  office  might  be  wholly 
set  apart  to  their  high  functions.  Would  such  care 
be  taken  if  the  office  were  an  ephemeral  one? 

3.  In  an  ever  increasing  need  for  it.  If  the 
office  was  ever  needed,  it  is  needed  now  to  mould  a 
heterogeneous  population,  to  direct  a  constantly 
advancing  intelligence,  to  combat  a  growing  scep¬ 
ticism,  to  restrain  an  increasing  worldiness,  to 
combine  and  direct  along  spiritual  lines  new  dis¬ 
coveries  and  inventions  in  the  material  world,  to 
interpret  God  as  He  speaks  through  a  multitude  of 
modern  movements. 

4.  In  its  inherent  resilience.  Have  you  noticed 
how  soon  a  community  recovers  from  what  would 
seem  irremediable  lapses  in  this  office?  Gross 
scandal  unfrocks  the  leading  minister  in  the  com¬ 
munity.  One  would  think  the  church  would  never 
recover  from  it,  and  that  such  a  community  would 
never  again  trust  a  preacher,  but  such  is  the  re¬ 
silient  vitality  of  this  office  that  within  six  months 
the  church  rallies  from  its  humiliation  and  gives 
the  new  pastor  unstinted  confidence.  Mash  an  egg¬ 
shell  and  it  is  a  permanent  wreck.  Mash  a  rubber 
ball  and  when  the  pressure  is  removed  it  assumes 
its  original  shape.  The  pastoral  office  is  not  an 
egg-shell.  The  fact  that  it  has  survived  the 
recreancy  of  so  many  of  its  incumbents  from  Judas 
till  now  raises  a  presumption  amounting  to  prac¬ 
tical  certainty  that  it  will  never  pass  away. 


VI 


THE  MAINTENANCE  OF  THE  OFFICE 

The  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire!* 

— Luke  10:  7. 

^  H  "She  true  preacher  is  not  in  the  ministry  of 
I  his  own  choice.  He  feels  himself  to  be 
there  by  the  will  of  God.  He  is  there 
because,  with  a  clear  conscience  he  cannot  do  other¬ 
wise.  He  has  not  sent  himself.  He  is  sent  of  God. 
In  Matthew  9:  38  Jesus  said  to  His  disciples: 

Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the  Harvest  that 
he  send  forth  labourers  into  the  harvest.”  The 
Greek  word  translated  **  send  forth  ”  is  a  much 
stronger  word  than  our  English  translation  im¬ 
plies.  It  is  the  verb  used  where  Jesus  drove  the 
money  changers  from  the  Temple,  and  where  the 
devils  were  cast  out  and  where  the  wheat  was 
thrown  from  the  ship  during  Paul’s  shipwreck  and 
where  reference  is  made  to  Hagar  being  driven 
from  the  house  of  Abraham.  It  implies  constraint, 
almost  compulsion.  To  translate  it,  thrust  out  ” 
would  be  a  mild  rendering  of  the  Greek  word. 
Such  translation  would  be  consistent  with  the 
mental  and  spiritual  processes  through  which  the 
average  preacher  passes  in  getting  into  the  min- 

lOO 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


101 


istry.  It  was  this  sense  of  being  thrust  into  the 
ministry  that  led  Paul  to  say:  “For  if  I  preach 
the  Gospel  I  have  nothing  to  glory  of  for  necessity 
is  laid  upon  me;  for  woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach 
not  the  Gospel.  For  if  I  do  this  of  mine  own  will, 
I  have  a  reward  but  if  not  of  mine  own  will,  I 
have  a  stewardship  intrusted  to  me.” 

Now,  if  God  thus  lays  His  hand  on  certain  men 
and  by  one  providential  method  or  another  thrusts 
them  out  of  a  chosen  calling  into  the  ministry.  He 
will,  we  may  be  sure,  make  some  adequate  per¬ 
manent  provision  for  their  support.  He  will  not 
reproduce  the  ancient  Egyptian  cruelty  of  requir¬ 
ing  His  servants  to  make  bricks  without  straw. 
If,  in  the  Mosaic  dispensation.  He  made  provision 
for  the  support  of  those  whom  He  required  to  give 
themselves  to  service  in  the  temple  and  at  the  altar 
He  must  have  intended  to  make  a  like  provision 
for  those  who  render  similar  service  in  the  new 
dispensation.  The  New  Testament  clearly  sets  out 
the  principle  of  ministerial  support  and  gives 
sufficient  details  as  to  the  method  of  applying  this 
principle. 

It  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  a  young  man 
entering  the  ministry  should  have  correct  views  on 
the  matter  of  his  temporal  support.  Right  think¬ 
ing  here  is  vital.  I  shall  never  cease  to  thank  God 
that  in  my  boyhood  ministry  the  teaching  and  ex¬ 
ample  of  B.  FI.  Carroll  gave  me  high  and,  I  am 
sure,  scriptural  ideas  on  this  subject.  It  has  been 


102 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


and  is  my  prayer  that  in  lectures  on  this  question 
year  after  year  I  may  leave  in  the  hearts  of  my 
students  the  lessons  I  learned  from  him,  and  that 
where  I  have  tarnished  his  teaching  they  may 
burnish  it. 

The  money-heart  is  the  preacher’s  ever-present 
menace.  It  blasts  the  brightest  prospect,  blights 
the  noblest  plans,  and  mildews  the  rosiest  dreams. 
It  saps  preaching  of  its  romance,  service  of  its 
knighthood  and  sacrifice  of  its  chivalry.  It  de¬ 
bases  ideals,  attenuates  vision  and  emasculates 
heroism.  It  clogs  prayer,  clips  the  wings  of  faith 
and  defiles  meditation.  It  dehearts  orthodoxy,  en¬ 
ervates  evangelism  and  paralyzes  missions.  The 
New  Testament  bristles  with  illustrations  of  the 
ruin  wrought  by  the  love  of  money.  It  led  to  the 
betrayal  of  Jesus  (Mark  14:  10)  ;  it  led  to  an  age¬ 
long  lie  about  the  resurrection  (Matt.  28:  12-15)  ; 
it  led  to  shameful  hypocrisy  and  lying  to  the  Holy 
Spirit  (Acts  4:  86-5:  5)  ;  it  led  to  a  blasphemous 
offer  in  the  matter  of  spiritual  power  (Acts  8:  18) ; 
it  led  to  the  continued  cruel  imprisonment  of  one  of 
God’s  noblest  servants  (Acts  24:  26). 

Money-lust  is  bad  everywhere  and  in  whomso¬ 
ever,  but  it  is  more  speedily,  more  completely  and 
more  irretrievably  fatal  to  the  preacher  than  to 
any  other  man  in  the  whole  world.  It  was  to  a 
preacher  that  Paul  wrote :  **  They  that  are  minded 
to  be  rich  fall  into  a  temptation  and  a  snare  and 
many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts  such  as  drown  men 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


103 


in  destruction  and  perdition.  For  the  love  of 
money  is  a  root  of  all  kinds  of  evil  which  many 
reaching  after  have  been  led  astray  from  the  faith 
and  have  pierced  themselves  through  with  many 
sorrows  ”  (1  Tim.  6:  9-10). 

This  solemn  warning  of  the  aged  preacher  to  his 
younger  brother  finds  its  authentication  in  the 
wrecked  life  of  every  preacher  who  has  willfully 
V  disregarded  it.  Money-making  and  preaching  were 
never  successfully  pursued  by  the  same  man. 
Tampering  with  money  has  probably  burned  the 
fingers  of  more  preachers  than  any  other  folly. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  this  possible  exception 
or  that  the  great  truth  holds  that  the  preacher 
ought  to  have  no  other  business  than  preaching 
and  no  other  means  of  support  than  that  which 
comes  in  return  for  his  ministry.  In  pioneer  times 
there  was  some  justification  for  the  preacher  who 
farmed  in  order  to  preach.  These  hardy  path¬ 
finders  deserve  double  honour.  They  farmed  not 
for  the  love  of  money,  but  from  the  love  of  preach¬ 
ing.  They  felt  Paul’s  “  woe  ”  if  they  did  not 
preach.  There  were  no  churches  to  support  them 
and  no  mission  boards  to  send  them,  so  they  farmed 
that  they  might  preach.  Many  of  them  were  so 
nobly  and  sincerely  consecrated  to  preaching  that 
most  of  us  are  unworthy  to  untie  their  shoes.  If 
Paul  ever  made  tents  for  money  it  could  be  jus¬ 
tified  only  by  like  exceptional  and  extraordinary 
conditions.  But  the  time  when  such  a  combination 


104 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


was  necessary  has  passed.  In  this  day  and  in  this 
country  if  a  preacher  has  reasonable  ability,  aver¬ 
age  training  and  genuine  consecration  he  will  not 
only  be  led  to  a  field,  but  will  find  a  modest  but 
sufficient  support  in  that  field.  In  my  judgment 
nothing  is  more  certain  than  the  proposition  that 
God  will  provide  a  support  for  the  spirit-called, 
spirit-filled  preacher  'who  will  once  for  all  cut 
loose  from  every  money-earning  enterprise  and 
give  himself  wholly  and  zealously  to  prayer  and 
the  ministry  of  the  Word. 

In  the  ninth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians  there 
is  a  very  illuminating  discussion  of  this  funda¬ 
mental  principle.  In  it  Paul  adopts  various  forms 
of  argument  to  prove  that  the  preacher  should 
have  no  other  calling  but  should  get  his  support 
out  of  his  ministry.  In  verse  six  he  says:  “  Or  I 
only  and  Barnabas  have  not  we  power  to  forbear 
working  ?  ’’  He  is  making  an  argument,  a  fortiori, 
to  show  that  whether  they  exercise  it  or  not,  he  and 
Barnabas  have  a  right  to  a  support  from  the  min¬ 
istry  and  in  order  to  have  proper  premise  for  his 
argument,  he  clearly  implies  that  all  other  workers 
were  thus  supported.  In  verse  eleven  he  says: 
‘‘If  we  sowed  unto  you  spiritual  things  is  it  a 
great  matter  that  we  shall  reap  your  carnal 
things  ?  ’’  In  this  verse  also  he  is  making  the  ar¬ 
gument  from  the  stronger  to  the  weaker  showing 
that  the  man  who  gives  himself  to  spiritual  service 
has  a  right  to  carnal  support.  Verses  seven,  nine 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


106 


and  thirteen  read :  What  soldier  ever  serveth  at 
his  own  charges?  Who  planteth  a  vineyard  and 
eateth  not  of  the  fruit  thereof  ?  Or  who  feedeth  a 
flock  and  eateth  not  of  the  milk  of  the  flock?  For 
it  is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  Thou  shalt  not 
muzzle  the  ox  when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn.  Is 
it  for  oxen  that  God  careth  or  saith  he  it  altogether 
for  our  sakes?  Do  ye  not  know  that  they  which 
minister  about  holy  things  live  of  the  things  of  the 
temple,  and  they  which  wait  at  the  altar  have  their 
portion  with  the  altar  ?  ’’  In  these  verses  he  un¬ 
dertakes  to  show  by  six  arguments  from  analogy 
that  the  gospel  preacher  ought  to  have  no  secular 
calling.  These  analogies  are  drawn  from  the  sol¬ 
dier,  the  planter,  the  shepherd,  the  thresher,  the 
servant  in  the  temple  and  the  priest  at  the  altar. 
In  his  question:  Is  it  for  oxen  that  God  careth  ? '' 
he  suggests  a  striking  a  fortiori  argument  which 
put  into  syllogistic  form  would  be: 

God  is  more  apt  to  permit  want  to  a  faithful  ox 
than  to  a  faithful  preacher. 

But  God  does  not  permit  want  to  a  faithful  ox. 

Therefore,  God  does  not  permit  want  to  a  faith¬ 
ful  preacher. 

But  the  most  conclusive  part  of  this  argument 
is  the  fourteenth  verse:  “Even  so  did  the  Lord 
ordain  that  they  which  proclaim  the  Gospel  should 
live  of  the  Gospel.”  This  verse  may  be  considered 
from  five  points  of  view.  It  may  be  regarded  as 
a  prophecy — foretelling  that  the  preacher  is  to  be 


106 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


supported  from  his  ministry.  Or  it  may  be  re¬ 
garded  as  permissive — authorizing  the  preacher  to 
demand  a  support  from  those  to  whom  he  minis¬ 
ters.  Or  it  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  promise,  as¬ 
suring  the  faithful  preacher  that  he  will  be  sup¬ 
ported.  Or  it  may  be  counted  as  a  command  to 
the  preacher — requiring  him  to  live  on  what  his 
ministry  brings  him.  Or  it  may  be  interpreted  as 
a  command  to  the  churches,  requiring  them  to  pro¬ 
vide  temporal  support  for  those  who  minister  to 
them  spiritually.  Doubtless,  all  these  ideas  are  in 
the  text,  the  last  two  perhaps  being  the  main 
thought.  Most  of  our  confusion  and  distressing 
blunders  and  humiliating  failures  in  the  matter  of 
pastoral  support  arise  from  a  refusal  to  apply  these 

principles  when  the  pastoral  relation  is  begun. 
From  these  Scriptures  and  many  others  of  like  im- 

s/  port  it  is  easy  to  see  that|the  New  Testament  ideal 
is  that  the  preacher  shall  have  no  other  means  of 
support  than  his  ministry^  and  that  the  churches 
must  ungrudgingly  supply  this  means  of  support. 
Whatever  capital  may  be  made  of  supposed  excep¬ 
tions,  it  is  clear  that  the  Lord  intends  that  His 
preachers  vShall  give  themselves  wholly  to  that 
work,  having  no  other  business  as  a  means  of  sup¬ 
port.  In  my  own  heart  there  is  an  abiding  convic¬ 
tion  that  the  preacher  who  disregards  this  divine 
law  and  turns  aside  even  partially  or  temporarily 
to  money-making,  does  it  at  his  peril.  He  Is  sow¬ 
ing  to  the  wind  and  will  reap  the  whirlwind.  It  is 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


107 


equally  true  that  the  church  that,  disobeying  this 
divine  law,  fails  to  provide  pastoral  support,  can¬ 
not  prosper. 

Let  us  now  give  a  little  attention  to  the  much 
exploited  supposed  exception  in  Paurs  tent-making 
experience.  The  passage  (Acts  18:  1~4)  reads, 

After  these  things  he  (Paul)  departed  from 
Athens  and  came  to  Corinth  and  he  found  a  cer¬ 
tain  Jew  named  Aquila — with  his  wife  Priscilla — 
and  he  came  unto  them  and  because  he  was  of  the 
same  trade  he  abode  with  them  and  they  wrought, 
for  by  their  trade  they  were  tent  makers.  And  he 
reasoned  in  the  synagogue  every  Sabbath  and  per¬ 
suaded  Jews  and  Greeks.  But  when  Silas  and 
Timothy  came  down  from  Macedonia  Paul  was 
constrained,’'  etc.  Please  notice  four  things:  (1) 
Paul  did  not  give  up  preaching  to  make  tents,  but 
preached  every  Sabbath  and  so  fervently  that  he 
persuaded  both  Jews  and  Greeks.  (2)  There  is 
no  record  that  he  received  pay  for  this  tent  making. 
(3)  In  2  Corinthians  11:  9  he  says  that  at  this 
very  time  his  necessities  were  being  supplied  by  the 
Macedonia  brethren.  (4)  In  2  Corinthians 
11:  7-8  he  says,  “  Or  did  I  commit  a  sin — because 
I  preached  the  Gospel  of  God  to  you  for  nought? 
I  robbed  other  churches  taking  wages  of  them  that 
I  might  minister  unto  you?”  In  this  passage  he 
distinctly  asserts  that  at  the  very  time  it  is  claimed 
he  was  making  tents  for  a  living  he  was  taking 
wages  from  other  churches  and  seriously  raises  the 


108 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


question  if  he  had  not  committed  a  sin  in  not  re¬ 
quiring  the  Corinthian  church  to  bear  its  propor¬ 
tionate  share  of  his  temporal  support.  One  cannot 
help  wondering  if  the  evils  in  the  Corinthian 
church  which  Paul  deplores  in  his  letters  to  it,  may 
not  be  due,  at  least  in  part,  to  the  bad  start  it  got 
in  the  fundamental  question  of  pastoral  support. 
In  my  opinion  the  facts  in  the  tent-making  case 
are  about  as  follows:  Paul  went  to  Corinth  for  a 
several  weeks'  evangelistic  campaign.  He  was  en¬ 
tertained  in  the  home  of  Aquila  and  Priscilla.  Be¬ 
ing  an  industrious  man  and  a  high-minded  man,  he 
was  unwilling  to  loaf  around  the  place  between 
preaching  services  while  his  host  and  hostess  were 
working  at  a  job  in  which  he  was  an  expert.  So 
between  services  he  helped  them  with  their  work 
to  offset  their  expense  in  feeding  him  and  perhaps 
to  offset  the  time  they  lost  in  attending  his  revival 
meetings.  Take  a  modern  example.  A  young 
preacher  graduated  from  a  Texas  college  the  latter 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  During  the  session 
he  had  kept  a  monthly  preaching  appointment  in 
a  near-by  country  church.  He  was  to  begin  a  meet¬ 
ing  there  two  weeks  after  school  closed.  He  had 
not  enough  money  to  pay  expenses  home  nor  to 
pay  board  in  town  so  he  decided  to  go  out  and  stay 
with  the  brethren  in  the  country  neighbourhood 
till  time  for  the  meeting  to  begin.  It  was  thresh¬ 
ing  time,  ‘‘  hands "  were  scarce,  so  the  young 
preacher  took  his  place  on  the  thrasher  and  “  cut 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


109 


binds  **  for  much  of  the  two  weeks.  He  received 
no  pay  nor  thought  of  receiving  any.  But,  being 
an  independent,  if  not  a  very  industrious,  youth 
he  was  unwilling  to  loaf  around  and  eat  the  farm¬ 
er's  bread  for  nought  while  everybody  else  was  at 
work.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting  the  young 
preacher  could  have  said  to  the  Speegleville  church 
just  what  Paul  said  to  the  Ephesian  church,  Ye 
yourselves  know  that  these  hands  have  ministered 
unto  my  necessities  and  them  that  were  with  me," 
and  just  what  Paul  said  to  this  Corinthian  church, 
referring  to  his  tent  making,  when  I  was  present 
with  you,  I  was  chargeable  to  no  man.  I  kept  my¬ 
self  from  being  burdensome  unto  you."  If  we  do 
not  infer  that  the  modern  young  preacher  had  gone 
into  the  business  of  cutting  binds  "  for  a  living, 
why  must  we,  from  an  almost  identical  case,  infer 
that  Paul  went  into  the  tent-making  business  for  a 
living? 

But,  while  not  admitting  it,  but  denying  it,  let 
us  grant  for  argument’s  sake  that  in  Corinth  Paul 
actually  made  tents  for  money.  The  concession 
affords  our  twentieth  century  secularizing  preacher 
no  comfort.  The  cases  are  not  enough  alike  in 
principle  to  justify  an  argument  from  analogy. 
Pioneering  the  Gospel  in  heathen  cities  might  oc¬ 
casionally  bring  about  a  condition  demanding  an 
exception  to  a  well-established  custom  and  clearly 
enunciated  New  Testament  law.  But,  granting  the 
exception  in  such  an  extreme  case  does  not  at  all 


110 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


justify  the  secularization  of  the  ministry  in  a  land 
where  Christians  are  plentiful,  churches  are  estab¬ 
lished  and  financial  ability  unquestioned.  In  an 
emergency  of  extreme  hunger  David  ate  the  shew 
bread  in  direct  violation  of  law  and  was  held 
blameless,  but  no  one  would  suppose  that  this  ex¬ 
ceptional  case,  growing  out  of  necessity,  would 
justify  David  in  including  shew  bread  in  his  ordi¬ 
nary  bill  of  fare.  In  a  similar  emergency,  Jesus 
justified  His  disciples  in  harvesting  some  wheat  on 
the  Sabbath  day.  But  no  sane  sincere  farmer 
would  cite  that  case  to  justify  running  his  binder 
all  day  Sunday. 

Having  thus  given  some  attention  to  PauFs  in¬ 
struction  to  the  churches  on  this  subject  and  hav¬ 
ing  studied  his  personal  example  in  the  matter,  let 
us  see  what  he  says  about  it  to  the  young  preacher. 

In  1  Timothy  4:  13-15  we  find  him  saying,  ‘‘  Till 
I  come  give  heed  to  reading,  to  exhortation,  to 
teaching.  Neglect  not  the  gift  that  is  in  thee.  Be 
diligent  in  these  things,  give  thyself  wholly  to  them, 
that  thy  progress  may  be  manifest  to  all.”  In 
these  verses  the  apostle  assigns  his  young  pupil  a 
task,  ‘‘  reading,  exhortation  and  teaching  ” — 
which,  if  faithfully  discharged,  would  preclude  a 
secular  calling.  Furthermore,  he  gives  him  a  warn¬ 
ing — “  neglect  not  the  gift  ” — which  he  cannot 
heed  if  he  is  to  give  himself  to  business  affairs,  for 
whatever  may  be  said  in  defense  of  the  preacher 
in  business,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  in  proportion 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


111 


as  he  gives  himself  to  business,  he  will  neglect  the 
preaching  gift.  But  Paul  explicitly  and  unequiv¬ 
ocally  forbade  Timothy  having  any  secular  call¬ 
ing  when  he  commanded  him  (verse  15)  to  give 
himself  wholly  to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  In 
2  Timothy  2:  4—6,  he  says,  No  soldier  on  serv¬ 
ice  entangleth  himself  with  the  affairs  of  this  life, 
that  he  may  please  him  who  enrolled  him  as  a 
soldier.  And  if  also  a  man  contend  in  the  games 
he  is  not  crowned  except  he  contend  lawfully.  The 
husbandman  that  laboureth  must  be  the  first  to 
partake  of  the  fruits.”  In  these  verses  he  sets 
forth  three  persons  whose  duties  are  analogous  to 
those  of  the  preacher — the  soldier,  the  athlete  and 
the  farmer.  Based  on  these,  he  makes  three  argu¬ 
ments  from  analogy.  He  contends  first  that  if 
the  soldier  has  no  right  to  engage  in  business  while 
in  the  army,  neither  has  the  preacher  while  in  the 
ministry.  His  second  argument  is  that  if  an  athlete 
forfeits  the  crown  unless  he  plays  the  game  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  rules,  so  the  preacher  will  lose  his 
reward  and  fail  of  divine  approval  if  he  violate 
the  rules  of  his  calling  by  entangling  himself  with 
secular  business.  His  third  argument  is  if  the 
farmer  is  given  and  required  to  exercise,  pre¬ 
eminent  and  precedent,  the  right  to  eat  of  the 
fruits  of  his  labour,  so  the  preacher  is  given,  and 
required  to  exercise,  the  right  to  live  from  the 
fruits  of  his  labour.  In  2  Timothy  4:  10,  he 
speaks  with  evident  disapproval  of  the  young 


112 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


brother  Demas,  who,  forsaking  the  gospel  min¬ 
istry,  embarked  in  business  at  Thessalonica. 

Thus  we  see  that  in  Paul’s  talk  to  the  churches, 
in  his  personal  example  and  in  his  advice  to  the 
young  preachers,  he  consistently  and  persistently 
demands  a  ministry  free  from  secular  entangle¬ 
ments  and  wholly  consecrated  to  this  romantic  call¬ 
ing. 

The  instruction  of  the  churches  on  this  subject 
of  ministerial  support  is  sadly,  almost  criminally, 
neglected.  No  subject  of  like  importance  receives 
so  little  attention  from  the  preacher  in  his  pulpit 
ministrations  or  his  personal  pastoral  instruction. 
Some  neglect  to  teach  the  duty  of  pastoral  support 
because  they  are  so  obsessed  with  iridescent 
dreams  and  Utopian  theories  that  they  cannot  come 
down  to  a  thing  so  practical.  Others  neglect  it  be¬ 
cause  of  a  spurious  timidity  lest  they  seem  to  be 
preaching  for  money.  Still  others  neglect  it  be¬ 
cause  they  do  not  realize  how  fundamentally  the 
doctrine  is  grounded  in  Scripture  teaching.  Every 
word  spoken  on  the  subject  and  every  example  il¬ 
lustrating  it,  either  in  the  Old  or  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  teaches  unequivocally  that  the  preacher  must 
give  his  undivided  time  to  his  ministry  and  further 
that  those  to  whom  he  ministers  must  provide  his 
temporal  support.  The  preacher  or  the  church 
wantonly  disobeying  or  thoughtlessly  disregarding 
this  reasonable  and  clearly  enunciated  Scripture 
law  will  come  to  speedy  and  irretrievable  disaster. 


I 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


113 


A  preacher  was  talking  with  a  layman  whose 
pastor  gave  five  days  in  the  week  to  secular  em¬ 
ployment  and  two  days  to  his  church,  and  who 
made  much  of  the  fact  that  he  was  chargeable  to 
no  man  in  the  church  for  his  living.  The  layman 
was  loud  in  praise  of  his  pastor’s  courage  in  the 
pulpit,  boasting  that  his  pastor  was  one  man  who 
did  not  shun  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God. 
The  preacher  said,  Does  your  pastor  ever  preach 
on  the  text  ‘  Even  so  did  the  Lord  ordain  that  they 
that  proclaim  the  Gospel  should  live  of  the  Gos¬ 
pel  ’  ?  ”  The  layman  confessed  that  although  he 
had  been  a  regular  church-goer  for  forty  years 
he  had  never  heard  a  sermon  from  that  text  nor 
on  that  subject.  The  layman  in  this  experience 
represents  the  overwhelming  majority  of  church 
members.  Lecturing  to  a  class  of  more  than  a 
hundred  preachers  recently,  I  asked  how  many  had 
ever  preached  a  sermon  on  this  subject  of  pastoral 
support.  Six  hands  went  up.  I  then  asked  how 
many  had  ever  heard  a  sermon  on  the  subject. 
Five  hands  went  up.  In  view  of  the  almost  uni¬ 
versal  neglect  of  faithful  exposition  of  the  Scrip¬ 
tures  on  the  duty  of  pastoral  support,  can  we  won¬ 
der  that  the  churches  have  so  little  conscience  on 
the  subject?  The  regenerated  man  is  usually  ready 
to  do  whatever  he  is  convinced  is  clearly  required 
by  the  Word  of  God.  Most  of  us  church-goers 
never  hear  anything  about  pastoral  support  except 
when  the  preacher,  goaded  to  desperation  with  un- 


114 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


paid  bills,  hurls  an  acrimonious  diatribe  at  our 
heads  because  his  salary  is  in  arrears.  A  -  little 
more  faithful  exegesis  of  God’s  Word  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  pastoral  support  before  the  deficit  occurred 
would  have  prevented  the  necessity  of  the  cen¬ 
sorious  philippic  after  it  occurred.  Correct  views 
on  this  matter  would  revolutionize  many  of  our 
preachers  and  most  of  our  churches.  Faithful 
teaching  on  the  subject  would  prevent  the  perennial 
embarrassment,  confusion  and  friction  incident  to 
raising  the  pastor’s  salary. 

Let  us  give  the  rest  of  this  discussion  to  some 
commonplace  suggestions  about  the  preacher  and 
his  money. 

Consider  in  the  first  place  his  motive  in  desiring 
it: 

(1)  That  he  may  preach  without  charge.  There 
are  three  things  to  be  said,  (a)  Such  a  course 
would  be  bad  on  the  churches.  In  2  Corinthians 
12:  13,  Paul  refers  to  the  fact  that  he  had  not 
required  a  support  at  the  hands  of  that  church  and 
begs  them  to  forgive  the  wrong  he  had  done  them. 
Pastoral  support  is  a  means  of  grace  to  a  church. 
In  not  requiring  it,  the  preacher  does  the  church 
more  harm  than  his  preaching  will  do  it  good,  (b) 
Such  a  course  would  be  bad  on  the  preacher.  It 
is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  when  re¬ 
ligious  institutions,  whether  church  or  school,  be¬ 
come  so  richly  endowed  that  they  are  no  longer 
directly  dependent  upon  the  people  they  lose  their 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


116 


power  to  serve  the  people.  The  same  principle 
holds  in  the  case  of  the  preacher.  His  power  to 
serve  will  depend  largely  upon  his  consciousness 
that  he  is  directly  dependent  upon  the  people  and 
directly  answerable  to  them.  If  you  say  that  such 
a  situation  would  militate  against  his  manly  in¬ 
dependence,  I  answer  that  it  would  also  militate 
against  his  devilish  pride,  (c)  The  further  fact  is 
that  he  will  not  realize  his  dream  about  making 
money.  If  God  has  called  him  to  preach  He  just 
will  not  let  him  succeed  if  he  turns  aside  from 
preaching  to  make  money,  however  high  his  mo¬ 
tive  for  making  it.  The  same  God  who  drove  all 
the  fish  away  from  Peter’s  net  the  night  he  quit  his 
ministry  and  went  back  to  his  old  secular  calling 
will  deliberately  and  persistently  thwart  every 
money-making  scheme  of  the  preacher  who  seeks 
wealth  at  the  expense  of  his  ministry.  A  friend  of 
my  youth  became  inoculated  with  this  fatuous 
germ.  He  was  going  to  make  a  fortune  so  he 
could  preach  where  he  pleased  without  burdening 
the  churches.  He  went  into  speculation  and  seemed 
to  run  well  for  a  season.  Such  was  his  apparent 
success  that  a  mutual  friend,  a  conservative  busi¬ 
ness  man,  assured  me  that  this  brilliant  young 
preacher  held  certain  equities  that  could  not  fail  to 
make  him  rich.  Within  less  than  ten  years  he 
was  a  financial  wreck.  The  worst  of  it  all  was 
that  honour  went  down  in  the  wreck,  so  that  he 
could  not  buy  a  loaf  of  bread  on  credit  in  the 


116 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


town  where  he  lived.  A  third  of  a  century  has 
passed,  but  he  has  never  been  able  to  extricate  him¬ 
self  from  the  bog  into  which  his  foolish  disregard 
of  God’s  word  led  him.  If  this  statement  should 
come  to  his  notice,  let  him  not  accuse  me  of  of¬ 
fensive  personalities.  I  may,  so  far  as  he  knows, 
be  talking  about  the  other  man.  For  he  and  I 
know  several  others  to  whom  these  remarks,  in  a 
general  way,  might  be  applied.  How  many  fatal 
examples  will  the  preachers  require  to  convince 
them  that  God  hath  ordained  that  they  who  preach 
the  Gospel  shall  live  of  the  Gospel  and  not  of 
speculation  ? 

(2)  But  a  second  motive  the  preacher  assigns 
for  wanting  to  make  money  is  that  he  may  be  able 
to  give.  The  first  remark  on  that  proposition  is 
that  probably  he  would  not  give.  The  general 
rule  is  the  richer  the  preacher  the  less  he  gives. 
And  a  further  remark  is  that  there  is  something 
so  much  better  that  he  can  give.  One  right- 
minded,  New  Testament-governed,  Spirit-filled, 
soul-loving  preacher  is  worth  more  than  a  million 
dollars  to  any  community.  One  such  preacher  sac¬ 
rificed  on  the  altar  of  Midas  is  a  more  deplorable 
and  irremediable  loss  than  the  failure  of  every 
bank  in  a  city. 

(3)  A  third  motive  the  preacher  sometimes 
urges  for  desiring  money  is  that  he  may  live  easy. 
In  the  first  place,  money  cannot  buy  ease. 
Damocles  thought  King  Dionysius  had  an  easy 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


117 


time  and  foolishly  envied  him.  Once  he  was  per¬ 
mitted  to  sit  in  the  King’s  chair  at  a  banquet.  To 
his  consternation,  he  saw  just  above  his  head  a 
heavy  sword  hung  by  a  single  hair.  Wealth  may 
not,  although  it  usually  does,  destroy  ease.  It  cer¬ 
tainly  cannot  produce  it.  In  the  second  place,  easy 
living  is  the  mother  of  temptation  and  is  apt  to  be 
the  death  of  spirituality.  John  Wesley  spoke  a 
great  truth  when  he  said :  “I  do  not  fear  for 
Methodism  while  Methodists  are  poor  and  weak. 
I  fear  for  Methodism  when  Methodists  become  rich 
and  strong.”  In  the  Bible  he  was  called  a  fool  who 
said,  ‘‘  Soul,  take  thine  ease.”  It  was  a  seductive, 
softly-blowing  south  wind  that  paved  the  way  for 
Paul’s  shipwreck.  The  storm  is  safer  for  the 
preacher  than  the  calm  sea.  David  took  his  ease 
while  his  soldiers  went  to  war.  Uriah’s  death  and 
Bathsheba’s  fall  and  his  own  disgrace  blossomed 
noxiously  in  that  soil.  The  ease-taking  preacher  is 
in  a  bad  way  for  both  happiness  and  usefulness. 

In  addition  to  his  motive  in  desiring  money,  let 
us  consider  for  a  moment  his  method  of  making 
it: 

(1)  He  may  save  it.  A  miser  was  asked  how 
he  made  his  money.  He  answered,  ‘‘  I  did  not 
make  it.  I  saved  it.”  I  do  not  depreciate  Benja¬ 
min  Franklin  and  his  disciples  when  they  insist 
upon  prudence,  frugality  and  economy.  The 
preacher  should  both  teach  and  practice  these 
thrifty  virtues,  but  a  preacher  puts  a  knife  to  his 


118 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


throat  when  he  sets  his  heart  on  saving  money. 
The  people  have  scant  respect  for  a  stingy  preacher. 
Paul  was  talking  specifically  to  preachers  when  he 
said,  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.” 
The  ideal  preacher  has  not  the  time  to  make  money 
nor  the  heart  to  save  it. 

(2)  Or  he  may  make  it  by  engaging,  along  with 
his  ministry,  in  some  legitimate  secular  business. 
He  is  foolish  if  he  tries  it.  It  will  take  time  from 
his  ministry,  give  him  an  unsavoury  reputation  as  a 
preacher  and  scatter  the  seeds  of  the  deadly  money- 
lust  in  his  heart.  On  top  of  all  this,  God  will  smash 
his  business  and  deny  him  Holy  Spirit  power  as  a 
preacher.  Business  entirely  legitimate  and  proper 
for  a  layman  is  deadly  hemlock  to  a  preacher.  I 
never  knew  a  preacher  trying  to  make  money  in 
secular  business  who  did  not  tarnish  and  cripple,  if 
he  did  not  utterly  forfeit  his  ministerial  standing. 

(3)  But,  perhaps,  he  will  not  engage  in  busi¬ 
ness,  but  will  invest  a  little  money  in  some  cleverly 
advertised  get-rIch-quick  speculation.  His  name  is 
legion,  his  folly  supreme  and  his  disappointment 
inevitable.  Some  years  ago  a  deacon  urged  his 
pastor  to  invest  a  little  money  in  a  fabulous  for¬ 
tune-making  gold  mine  in  the  far  off  State  of 
Washington  (by  the  way,  these  guaranteed,  blown- 
in-the-bottle  fortune  making  investments  are  usu- 
ally  located  at  the  other  end  of  the  continent). 
The  deacon  said  that  a  few  hundred  dollars  in¬ 
vested  would  in  five  years  make  the  pastor  in- 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


119 


dependently  rich.  But/'  said  the  pastor,  I  have 
not  the  money  to  invest.”  Very  good,”  urged 
the  deacon,  I  will  lend  you  the  money.”  ‘‘  But,” 
said  the  pastor,  “  I  might  never  be  able  to  pay  it 
back.”  “  All  right,”  urged  the  deacon,  ‘‘  I  will 
guarantee  you  against  loss.  If  the  enterprise  does 
not  succeed  you  need  not  pay  the  money  back.”  It 
sounded  so  good  to  the  pastor  that  he  took  it  under 
advisement.  That  night  he  talked  it  over  with  his 
wife — and  the  noble  woman,  blessings  on  her,  said, 
Don’t  do  it.  Even  if  you  knew  it  would  make 
you  a  fortune,  I  don’t  want  you  to  do  it.  Wealth 
will  cripple  your  ministry  and  I’d  rather  have  you 
the  right  sort  of  gospel  preacher  than  the  richest 
man  in  the  world.”  That  pastor  did  not  invest; 
other  preachers  did.  I  hope  they  kissed  their 
money  good-bye,  for  they  have  never  seen  it  since. 
Business  enterprises  that  pay  such  dividends  do 
not  need  to  peddle  their  stock  nor  advertise  it  in 
the  market-place.  I  would  bum  it  into  the  heart 
fiber  of  every  young  preacher  that  he  must  leave 
speculation  to  the  stock  gamblers  while  he  gives 
himself  wholly  to  the  ministry  of  the  Word  and 
to  prayer.” 

A  fourth  way  a  preacher  may  get  money  is  to 
inherit  it.  In  such  case  he  must  not  throw  it  away 
and  probably  should  not  give  it  away  all  in  a  lump. 
Let  him,  after  consultation  with  some  careful  busi¬ 
ness  friends,  invest  it  in  some  safe  enterprise  where 
he  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  its  management 


120 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


and  use  the  income  from  it  to  the  glory  of  God  by 
helping  men. 

A  fifth  way  in  which  he  may  get  money  is  to 
marry  it.  Marrying  a  rich  woman  is  a  dangerous 
experiment  for  a  preacher.  It  usually  costs  him 
both  his  standing  and  his  power  as  a  preacher.  I 
trust  all  the  poor  rich  girls  will  get  good  husbands, 
but  I  pray  that  few  of  them  may  get  preachers.  It 
is  better  for  them  to  marry  somebody  else — better 
for  them  and  better  for  the  preachers.  A  preacher 
is  poorly  qualified  to  manage  a  rich  woman^s  es¬ 
tate.  And  managing  a  rich  woman’s  estate  is  a 
piddling  business  for  a  preacher.  He  is  called  to 
a  bigger  business  than  that.  It  is  true  that  mar¬ 
riage  is  a  thing  of  the  heart,  the  consummation  of 
love,  and  the  true  man  will  follow  that  flag 
wherever  it  leads  him.  But,  based  on  somewhat 
extensive  observation,  my  advice  to  the  young 
preacher  is:  Do  not  marry  a  rich  woman  unless 
your  heart  imperiously  demands  it.  In  such  event 
make  the  leap  and  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  your 
soul. 

Now  that  we  are  on  the  subject  of  the  preacher 
and  his  money,  let  us  think  a  little  about  how  he 
shall  spend  it: 

(1)  Judiciously.  Whatever  his  income  may  be, 
there  should  be  no  foolish  extravagance.  He  has 
no  right  to  waste  what  God  gives  him.  Then,  his 
example  in  the  matter  will  mean  much  in  the  com¬ 
munity.  The  preacher’s  course  in  this  matter  will 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


121 


set  the  pace  for  others.  Reckless  expenditure  of 
money  or  the  judicious  use  of  it  on  the  part  of  the 
people  will  depend  much  upon  the  example  the 
preachers  set.  Again,  he  should  spend  his  money 
judiciously  to  avoid  debt.  The  preacher  goes  on 
the  toboggan  slide  the  day  he  begins  to  buy  beyond 
his  ability  to  pay.  This  does  not  mean  that  he 
should  never  make  a  debt.  But  an  honest  man  will 
never  make  a  debt  until  he  has  carefully  thought 
out  a  plan  by  which  he  will  be  able  to  pay  that  debt. 
A  debt  contracted  with  no  reasonable  prospect  of 
being  able  to  pay  it,  is  not  a  mere  misfortune — it  is 
a  disgrace.  Such  conduct  is  disreputable  every¬ 
where  ;  it  is  doubly  so  with  the  preacher. 

(2)  Chivalrously.  What  we  have  been  saying 
does  not  imply  that  the  preacher  is  to  dole  out  his 
money  like  a  miser — groaning  with  each  copper  as 
if  it  were  a  ruddy  drop  of  his  heart’s  blood.  I 
never  admired  Robert  Ingersoll — ^neither  person¬ 
ally,  nor  religiously,  nor  politically,  but  I  heartily 
indorse  him  when  he  said,  “  I’d  rather  be  a  beggar 
and  spend  my  money  like  a  king,  than  be  a  king 
and  spend  my  money  like  a  beggar.”  What  is 
more  pusillanimous  than  a  puckered,  penurious, 
picayunish  preacher?  He  will  chaffer  with  the 
huckster  for  half  an  hour  to  get  three  more  turnips 
for  a  dime  and  haggle  with  the  haberdasher  for  a 
nickel’s  reduction  on  a  pocket  handkerchief. 

(3)  Religiously.  Paul’s  ‘‘  Whatsoever  ye  do,  do 
all  to  the  glory  of  God,”  applies  with  peculiar 


122 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


force  to  the  preacher  and  his  money.  The  Scrip¬ 
ture  ideal  is  that  the  preacher’s  money  comes  to 
him  in  return  for  religious  service,  and  we  almost 
feel  that  more  than  other  men  he  is  bound  to  spend 
it  religiously.  That  does  not  mean  that  all  his  in¬ 
come  must  be  spent  on  distinctly  religious  activi¬ 
ties,  but  it  does  mean  that  he  must  not  spend  a 
penny  for  a  material  necessity  or  comfort  or  luxury 
except  as  these  shall  in  some  way  advance  Christ’s 
Kingdom.  Under  this  principle,  he  may  spend 
money  for  physical  necessities,  material  comforts 
or  even  chastened  luxuries  and  healthful  amuse¬ 
ments.  Money  spent  for  intellectual  culture  or 
aesthetic  enjoyment  may  easily  be  justified  under 
this  principle.  No  one  can  lay  down  an  arbitrary 
Procrustean  set  of  rules,  specifying  in  detail  what 
the  preacher  may  buy  or  may  not  buy.  Each  man 
must  work  out  for  himself  the  details  of  how  he 
shall  spend  his  money,  keeping  always  in  mind 
Paul’s  controlling  general  principle  that  whatever 
he  spends  must  be  for  the  glory  of  God. 

finally,  although  it  is  only  indirectly  germane 
to  the  subject  of  this  lecture,  let  us  say  a  word 
about  the  preacher’s  attitude  to  men  who  have 
money.  Some  Lilliputian  ministerial  specimens 
are  prejudiced  against  men  just  because  they  have 
money  and  lend  themselves  to  the  unseemly  task  of 
arraying  the  so-called  poor  against  the  so-called 
rich.  It  was  mine  to  attend  not  long  ago  a  re¬ 
ligious  pow-wow  (I  will  not  degrade  the  noble 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


123 


word  by  calling  it  a  revival)  in  which  the  peri¬ 
patetic  shekel-gathering  pulpiteer  (I  will  not  dis¬ 
honour  the  gracious  New  Testament  title  by  call¬ 
ing  him  an  evangelist),  along  with  other  silly  per¬ 
formances,  spent  much  tirne  in  bringing  foolish 
and  groundless  charges  against  the  banks  and  bank¬ 
ers  in  the  community.  Now  banks  and  bankers, 
like  other  institutions  and  other  men,  are  some¬ 
times  “  unco  weak  ”  and  often  wrong-adjusted, 
but  ‘‘  banking  and  “  badness  ”  are  not  necessarily 
synonymous.  Whatever  might  be  said  of  indi¬ 
viduals  in  this  class,  some,  perhaps  most,  of  those 
bankers  were  high-minded  citizens,  altruistic  hu¬ 
manitarians  and  reasonably  consistent  Christians. 
My  eyes  not  being,  as  Sam  Weller  said,  ‘‘million 
magnifying  microscopes,”  I  was  unable  to  see 
what  good  the  crass  sensationalist  hoped  to  accom¬ 
plish  by  arousing  community  prejudice  against  a 
group  of  men  who  were,  to  say  the  least,  equal  to 
the  average  as  citizens  and  church  members.  A 
rich  man,  like  a  preacher,  may  be  a  bad  man,  but 
the  argument  to  prove  that  he  is  bad  should  be 
based  upon  some  other  premise  than  the  incidental 
and  often  accidental  fact  that  he  is  rich.  The 
preaching  that  arrays  class  against  class  is  bad 
medicine.  This  proposition  will  hold  everywhere. 
It  will  apply  with  equal  force  to  arraying  the  poor 
against  the  rich  and  the  rich  against  the  poor,  the 
white  against  the  black  and  the  black  against  the 
white,  the  old  against  the  young  and  the  young 


124 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


against  the  old,  the  native  against  the  foreigner  and 
the  foreigner  against  the  native.  Class  legislation 
and  class  preaching  are  equally  obnoxious  to  New 
Testament  democracy.  The  gospel  preacher  is 
sent  forth  to  minister  unto  men — not  to  a  class — 
but  to  all  men  alike.  The  preacher  prostitutes  his 
office  when  he  allows  the  demagogue’s  prejudice 
against  wealth  to  disqualify  him  for  ministering  in 
spiritual  things  to  men  who  are  rich. 

'But  there  are  preachers  who,  while  they  have 
no  prejudice  against  the  rich  man,  are  disqualified 
for  ministering  to  him  because  they  are  afraid  of 
him.  They  suppose  that  the  rich  man  is  inherently 
and  psychologically  different  from  other  men.  The 
preacher  is  often  overawed  by  the  physical  bland¬ 
ishments  of  wealth,  “  its  tinsel,  show  and  a’  that, 
its  riband,  star  and  a’  that,”  but  when  he  probes 
through  ‘‘  a’  that  ”  he  finds  that  the  rich  man  loves 
and  hates  and  laughs  and  weeps,  covets  friendship 
and  fellowship,  is  conscious  of  his  sinfulness,  longs 
to  be  rid  of  sin,  admits  his  need  of  a  Saviour  and 
yearns  for  spiritual  instruction,  is  bad  in  spots  and 
good  in  spots,  an  heir  of  total  depravity  and  the 
subject  of  saving  grace — even  as  others.  There  is 
not,  from  any  point  of  view,  as  much  difference  as 
many  people  imagine  between  wealth  and  poverty. 
The  rich  man  of  to-day  will  be  the  poor  man  of  to¬ 
morrow  and  the  poor  of  to-day  the  rich  of  to-mor¬ 
row.  There  is  only  an  “  e  ”  between  fasting  and 
feasting.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  the 


THE  MAINTENANCE 


125 


preacher  should  either  despise  his  rich  layman  or 
fear  him.  They  are  brothers^ — brothers  in  crea¬ 
tion,  brothers  in  human  frailty,  brothers  in  the  new 
birth.  Why  should  not  they  understand  each 
other  ? 

Then  let  us  pray  that  come  it  may 
As  come  it  will  for  a'  that 
That  sense  and  worth  o’er  a’  the  earth 
May  bear  the  gree,  and  a’  that 
For  a’  that  and  a’  that 
It’s  coming  yet  for  a’  that 
That  man  to  man  the  world  o’er 
Shall  be  brothers  for  a’  that.” 

In  addition  to  these  two  types — those  who  are 
prejudiced  against  the  rich  and  those  who  fear  the 
rich — let  us  think  for  a  moment  of  the  preacher 
who  toadies  to  the  rich.  Some  preachers,  and  par¬ 
ticularly  some  preachers'  wives,  are  the  victims  of 
a  ‘‘  strong  weakness  ”  at  this  point.  Once  upon  a 
time,  if  persistent  tradition  may  be  accepted,  there 
was  a  preacher  who,  whenever  any  question  came 
up  for  decision  at  church,  would  always  inquire, 
‘‘  Well,  what  does  the  church  say?  ”  But  when  he 
asked  the  question  he  would  look  straight  at  the 
pew  of  the  only  rich  man  in  the  church.  Once 
when  the  rich  man  was  absent,  a  humorous,  and 
somewhat  critical  deacon  said,  in  answer  to  the 
pastor’s  regulation  question  and  habitual  involun¬ 
tary  glance  at  the  rich  man’s  pew,  ‘‘  The  church  is 


126 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


sick  abed  with  measles.”  Though  he  were  an  angel 
from  heaven,  it  is  bad  for  a  church  when  one  per¬ 
son  bears  its  burdens  or  dominates  its  thinking.  It 
is  bad  if  one  man  dominates  by  sheer  force  of 
strong  character  and  superior  ability.  It  is  doubly 
bad  if  he  dominates  it  by  the  superficial  and  acci¬ 
dental  power  of  money.  The  preacher  who  fights 
men  because  they  have  money  deserves  an  earnest 
rebuke,  though  he  may  retain  our  respect.  But  the 
preacher  who  deliberately  fawns  upon  the  rich, 
places  himself  utterly  beyond  the  respect  of  a  de¬ 
cent  man.  Money  is  a  fictitious  and  dangerous 
basis  of  power  and  authority,  either  in  a  local 
church  or  a  general  religious  convocation.  I  am 
against  the  money  basis  test  of  membership  in  any 
kind  of  religious  body,  from  a  local  church  to  an 
ecumenical  council. 

A  pointed  conclusion.  If  there  is  truth  in  the 
foregoing  contention  that  the  preacher  should  have 
no  other  dependence  for  his  support  than  the  pro¬ 
ceeds  of  his  ministry,  is  there  not  growing  out  of 
it  an  imperious  demand  that  the  churches  shall  be 
more  conscientious  in  the  matter  of  supplying  the 
money  to  make  it  possible  for  him  to  live  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  this  evident  Scripture  requirement? 


VII 


SOME  QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE 
OFFICE— PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL 

A  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed/^ 

— 2  Timothy  2:  15. 


WHEN  God  wills  to  make  a  great  preacher 
His  first  need  is  a  perfect  animal.  I 
do  not  say  His  highest  need,  but  His 
first  need — not  first,  to  be  sure,  in  importance  but 
first  in  process.  A  good  physique  is  to  a  preacher 
what  a  good  foundation  is  to  a  house.  It  is  not 
the  whole  thing  but  it  is  that  upon  which  the  whole 
thing  rests. 

I.  Physical  Qualifications,  A  man  may  make  a 
useful  preacher  in  spite  of  the  handicap  of  a  frail 
body,  but  the  ideal  preacher  has  a  perfect  physique. 
A  successful  ministry  with  a  diseased,  enfeebled 
body  is  achieved  against  great  odds.  Other  things 
being  equal,  the  vigorous,  robust,  muscular 
preacher  will  distance  his  frail,  feeble,  fragile 
brother,  Carlisle,  though  a  confirmed  dyspeptic 
and  therefore  not  in  this  case  the  hero  of  his  own 
story,  gave  noble  advice  when  he  said  in  an  ad¬ 
dress  to  students  in  Edinburg,  “  Finally,  I  have 
one  advice  which  is  of  very  great  importance.  You 

are  to  consider  that  health  is  a  thing  to  be  attended 

127 


128 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


to  continually  as  the  very  highest  of  all  temporal 
things.  There  is  no  kind  of  an  achievement  equal 
to  perfect  health.  What  to  it  are  nuggets  and 
millions  ?  Happy  the  preacher  who  can  say  with 
old  Adam  in  As  You  Like  It 

“  Though  I  look  old  yet  am  I  strong  and  lusty 
For  in  my  youth  I  never  did  apply 
Hot  and  rebellious  liquors  in  my  blood. 

Nor  did  not  with  unbashful  forehead  woo 
The  means  of  weakness  and  debility 
Therefore  my  age  is  as  a  lusty  winter, 

Frosty  but  kindly.” 

Should  physical  soundness  be  considered  in  ex¬ 
amining  candidates  for  ordination  to  the  ministry  ? 
The  question  is  carefully  considered  by  Boards  ap¬ 
pointing  men  to  foreign  fields.  If  I  will  admit 
that  there  are  good  reasons  for  greater  care  as  to 
the  health  of  the  foreign  missionary  than  that  of 
the  home  preacher  will  not  my  brother  who  shook 
his  head  when  I  raised  the  question  admit  that 
ordaining  councils  ought  to  give  at  least  some  con¬ 
sideration  to  the  candidate’s  physical  condition? 
While  admitting  that  a  robust  body  should  not  be 
made  a  sine  qua  non  to  ordination,  I  insist  there 
ought  to  be  at  least  enough  attention  given  to  it  to 
impress  the  prospective  preacher  with  the  impor¬ 
tance  of  preserving  his  health  and  developing 
physical  strength. 

1.  That  the  preacher  should  be  sound  in  body 


SOME  QUALIFICATIONS  129 

may  be  established  by  an  argument  from  Scrip- 
ture, 

A  very  suggestive  Scripture  is  found  in  Leviticus 
21:  21-23:  ‘'No  man  of  the  seed  of  Aaron  the 
priest  that  hath  a  blemish  shall  come  nigh  to  offer 
the  offerings  of  the  Lord  made  by  fire.  He  shall 
eat  the  bread  of  his  God  both  of  the  most  holy 
and  of  the  holy.  Only  he  shall  not  go  in  into  the 
veil  nor  come  nigh  unto  the  altar  because  he  hath 
a  blemish.” 

Another  suggestive  Scripture  is  1  Corinthians 
6:  19:  “Or  know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  a  tem¬ 
ple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  in  you  which  ye 
have  from  God  and  ye  are  not  your  own?  Glorify 
God  therefore  in  your  body.”  The  implication  is 
clear  that  since  the  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  it  must  not  only  be  kept  clean  and  pure  but 
must  be  kept  strong. 

Another  passage  on  the  same  point  is  3  John  2: 
“  Beloved  I  pray  that  thou  mayest  prosper  and  be 
in  health  even  as  thy  soul  prospereth.” 

But  perhaps  the  best  Scripture  evidence  lies  in 
the  fact  that  the  Scriptures  afford  no  instance  of 
God  calling  to  a  special  task  a  diseased  man,  a 
physically  weak  man  or  a  man  with  any  abnormal 
physical  peculiarities.  The  proof  is  not  absolute 
but  the  evidence  is  strong  that  when  in  any  dis¬ 
pensation  covered  by  the  Bible  God  chose  a  man 
for  a  special  task  He  chose  a  man  physically  ro¬ 
bust. 


130 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


2.  A  strong  body  is  demanded  by  the  argument 
from  an  eminent  need.  His  pulpit  ministra¬ 
tions  demand  it.  I  freely  confess  that  some 
of  our  preachers  when  they  exercise  in  public  ” 
make  a  heavier  draft  on  physical  strength 
than  the  necessities  of  the  case  justify,  but  even 
the  sane  pulpit  performance,  the  kind  that  does 
not  ‘‘  tear  a  passion  to  tatters  ''  makes  a  great  draft 
on  physical  strength.  Again,  the  preacher  needs 
physical  strength  if  he  does  the  amount  of  pas¬ 
toral  visiting  he  should.  And  further,  if  he  is  the 
student  he  should  be  he  will  need  a  strong  body  to 
make  possible  long  continued  mental  activity.  And 
yet  again,  if  he  writes  as  many  sermons  as  he 
should  and  as  much  for  publication  as  he  ought  the 
“  drain  of  the  desk  ’’  will  require  a  strong  body. 
And  still  further,  if  his  pastorate  is  large  its  de¬ 
mands  Upon  him  will  be  such  as  to  force  him  into 
irregular  hours  and  the  loss  of  much  sleep.  If  the 
preacher  makes  more  speeches  than  a  lawyer,  more 
visits  than  a  doctor,  does  more  studying  than  a 
college  professor,  writes  more  copy  than  an  editor, 
loses  more  sleep  and  has  more  irregular  hours  than 
a  trained  nurse,  a  sound  body  is  not  only  a  great 
luxury  but  an  imperious  necessity.  It  may  also  be 
suggested  that  the  preacher’s  social  influence  and 
therefore,  to  some  extent,  his  usefulness  as  a  min¬ 
ister  will  be  affected  by  his  physical  condition.  It 
is  certainly  true  that  the  optimistic,  conquering 
spirit  without  which  no  preacher  can  succeed  will 


SOME  QUALIFICATIONS 


131 


depend  more  perhaps  than  he  thinks  upon  the  state 
of  his  health. 

Given  a  good  sound  body  seven  things  are  neces¬ 
sary  for  its  permanent  maintenance.  (1)  Sleep — 
six  to  nine  hours,  depending  on  temperament  and 
age.  (2)  Food — properly  prepared  and  in  sufficient 
quantity,  thoroughly  masticated.  (3)  Fresh  air — 
out  of  doors  as  much  as  possible  night  and  day, 
asleep  or  awake.  (4)  Clothing — clean  and  suited 
to  the  thermometer.  (5)  Exercise — a  good  sys¬ 
tem  of  gymnastics  twice  daily,  including  much 
walking.  (6)  A  bath — just  before  it  is  needed. 
(7)  Mental  recreation,  including  laugh-provoking 
amusements,  since  there  is  no  virtue  in  a  forlorn 
and  funereal  physiognomy. 

II.  Intellectual  Qualifications,  A  good  brain 
developed  by  natural  human  agencies  is  an  essential 
factor  in  the  making  of  a  real  preacher.  Huxley 
is  not  often  quoted  as  authority  in  a  theological 
seminary,  but  he  was  thoroughly  orthodox  when 
he  spoke  of  “  a  man  so  trained  in  youth  that  his 
body  is  the  ready  servant  of  his  will  and  does  with 
equal  pleasure  all  the  work  that  as  a  mechanism  it 
is  capable  of — whose  intellect  is  a  clear,  cold,  logic- 
engine  with  all  its  parts  ready  like  a  steam  engine 
to  be  turned  to  any  kind  of  work  and  spin  the  gos¬ 
samers  as  well  as  forge  the  anchors  of  the  mind.’* 
When  God  foreordains,  predestinates  and  elects  a 
worthy  preacher  his  electing  grace  always  includes 
a  big  brain.  He  is  foolish  who  enters,  or  tries  to 


132 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


go  on  in  the  ministry  depending  on  brains  ;  but  he  is 
equally  foolish  who  thinks  the  Lord  will  supply  the 
preacher  with  something  as  a  substitute  for  brains. 
John  Brown  of  Haddington  used  to  say:  Gentle¬ 
men,  ye  need  three  things  to  make  ye  good  minis¬ 
ters.  Ye  need  learning  and  grace  and  common 
sense.  As  for  the  learning  I’ll  try  to  set  ye  in  the 
way  for  it ;  as  for  grace  ye  must  always  pray  for  it, 
but  if  ye  have  na’  brought  the  common  sense  with 
ye,  ye  may  go  about  your  business.” 

The  saying  was  once  more  current  than  now,  but 
we  still  hear  it  said  that  if  the  preacher  will  just 
open  his  mouth  the  Lord  will  fill  it.  And  He  will 
— ^with  wind.  This  notion  that  unpreparedness, 
fatal  everywhere  else,  would  be  all  right  for 
preaching,  got  its  start  from  a  misinterpretation  of 
1  Corinthians  1 :  23,  Behold  your  calling,  breth¬ 
ren,  how  that  not  many  wise  after  the  flesh,  not 
many  mighty,  not  many  noble  are  called.”  And 
yet  these  words  were  written  by  a  man  of  tremen¬ 
dous  natural  gifts  and  the  broadest  culture  in  the 
schools  of  his  day.  There  was  never  a  great 
preacher  who  was  not  a  great  student.  He  may 
have  missed  college  and  seminary  both,  but  he  was 
a  student.  He  may  not  have  had  your  well  ap¬ 
pointed  “  study  ”  nor  walls  lined  with  costly  vol¬ 
umes,  nor  rich  study  gown ;  nor  elegant  leisure  for 
dawdling  over  many  books,  but  if  he  was  a  great 
preacher — a  useful  preacher,  he  was  a  great  stu¬ 
dent — a  diligent  student.  A  man  who  had  rounded 


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out  his  forty  years  in  the  ministry  said  to  a  friend 
just  the  other  day,  The  only  reason  why  I  have 
failed  to  make  a  great  and  useful  preacher  is  that 
I  have  not  been  a  diligent  student.  I  have  a  good 
mind,  have  received  the  very  best  educational  ad¬ 
vantages,  have  read  a  multitude  of  books,  and 
travel  has  given  me  rather  wide  observation,  but  I 
have  never  really  studied  the  books  I  read  nor  the 
situations  observed  in  travel.''  The  brother  may 
have  had  an  exaggerated  notion  of  his  ability  on 
the  one  hand  or  of  the  failure  of  his  ministry  on 
the  other,  but  he  was  emphasizing  a  great  truth. 
Due  to  other  conditions  a  man  may  fail  even  if  he 
is  a  student;  but  whatever  the  other  conditions  he 
is  certain  to  fail,  if  he  is  not.  In  2  Timothy  2:  2 
the  “  give  diligence  "  of  the  revision  as  a  substitute 
for  the  study  "  of  the  authorized  version  empha¬ 
sizes  and  reinforces  my  position.  Paul  exhorts 
Timothy  to  give  attendance  to  reading,  exhorting 
and  teaching,  and  then  urges  him  to  do  two  things, 
(1)  Meditate  on  them.  The  word  is 
(megetao)  and  was  used  by  the  Greeks  to  express 
the  act  of  the  orator  pondering  and  pruning  and 
practicing  his  oration  and  implies  far  more  than 
the  semi-elastic  cogitations  usually  thought  of  as 
religious  meditation.  (2)  Live  in  them.  The 
translation  reads  ‘‘  give  thyself  wholly  to  them," 
but  the  verb  used  is  from  (eimi)  to  be,  to 
live,  and  it  says  literally  ‘‘  live  in  these  things." 
This  passage  teaches  that  if  a  man  is  to  be  a 


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THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


preacher  he  must  ponder,  prune,  practice — immerse 
his  life  in  the  mighty  task.  No  wonder  he  urges 
such  diligent  attention  to  the  three  things — read¬ 
ing,  doctrine,  exhortation — for  they  cover  the 
whole  of  the  preacher’s  public  ministry.  There  is 
the  public  reading  of  God’s  word — how  important 
that  it  be  done  intelligently,  intelligibly,  interpre- 
tatively.  There  is  the  sane  interpretation  of  the 
word  of  God  setting  forth  each  doctrine  in  its  place 
and  its  season — cutting  the  cloth  straight  that  the 
garment  of  truth  may  be  symmetrical.  There  is 
exhortation — the  proper  practical  application  of 
these  doctrines  to  the  lives  of  men.  Here  is  a  task 
large  enough  to  demand  of  even  the  most  brilliant 
preacher  that  he  shall  literally  live  in  it. 

Tet  us  at  this  point  name  a  few  considerations 
from  a  purely  human  standpoint  demanding  a  stu¬ 
dious  ministry. 

(1)  Study  leads  to  humility.  Undigested  read¬ 
ing  causes  a  preacher  to  swell.  Study  makes  him 
grow.  Superficial  acquaintance  with  books  and 
their  contents  tends  to  pomposity.  Genuine  knowl¬ 
edge  chastens  and  humbles.  Whoever  parades  his 
learning  has  not  got  it.  He  who  has  learning  does 
not  parade  it.  A  great  physician  said  not  long 
since:  “  One  of  the  sad  things  about  my  profession 
is  that  my  patients  think  I  can  do  so  much  for 
them  while  I  know  I  can  do  so  little.”  The  most 
learned  professor  of  my  school  days  said  one  day 
to  a  class  of  beginners,  “  Gentlemen,  the  difference 


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between  what  you  know  and  what  I  know  would 
make  a  very  small  book.”  Among  professional 
men  the  advertiser  is  branded  a  quack.  The  rule 
will  hold  in  the  entire  realm  of  learning.  Humil¬ 
ity  is  the  handmaiden  of  real  learning. 

(2)  Study  gives  poise  and  stability  to  character^ 
and  thereby  guarantees  a  longer  period  of  useful¬ 
ness.  If  a  man  is  a  student  his  material  will  last 
longer.  It  is  rarely  if  ever  assigned  as  a  reason 
for  making  a  change  but  I  have  no  doubt  most  of 
the  lamentable  and  much  deplored  pastoral  shifting 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  most  of  our  preachers  are 
really  not  students.  It  is  easier  to  ship  the  present 
little  box  of  sermons  than  it  is  to  fill  another  box. 
It  is  easier  to  run  off  to  another  situation  than  it  is 
to  prayerfully  study  and  solve  this  one.  It  is  my 
privilege  to  know  intimately  many  ministers  and  it 
is  not  the  harsh  judgment  of  a  cynic  but  the  opin¬ 
ion  of  a  sympathetic  friend  when  I  say  that  fifty 
per  cent,  of  them  have  quit  studying.  Yes,  they 
read  some — many  of  them  read  much,  some  of 
them  too  much,  but  they  are  not  students.  Every 
preeminently  successful  pastorate  known  to  me  is 
filled  by  a  man  who  is  a  preeminent  student.  The 
listless  treadmill  pastorate  is  the  legitimate  daugh¬ 
ter  of  a  lounging,  unstudious  pastor.  Soon,  for 
want  of  fresh  preaching  material,  he  will  drift  into 
Y  another,  and  usually  a  less  important,  field.  When 
the  preacher  loses  his  grip  on  his  studies  he  will 
soon  lose  his  grip  on  his  field. 


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THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


But  not  only  will  the  material  of  the  studious 
preacher  last  longer  but  the  man  himself  will  last 
longer.  What  killed  J.  M.  Gaddy,  the  great  Texas 
Baptist  evangelist  and  missionary?  I  speak  his 
name  in  reverence  as  one  who  loved  him  as  Jona¬ 
than  loved  David.  But  why  did  he  die  twenty 
years  before  his  natural  time?  Entering  the  min¬ 
istry  past  thirty,  with  very  limited  education,  his 
great  brain  and  great  heart  and  great  energy  thrust 
him  almost  immediately  into  positions  alongside  of 
trained,  seasoned,  educated  men.  He  used  to  say, 
What  these  educated  men  can  do  easily  I  must  do 
in  main  strength  and  awkwardness.’^  The  recruit 
was  thrown  into  line  with  the  trained  veteran  and 
died  rather  than  whimper.  Given  an  opportunity 
for  study  that  would  have  disciplined  and  seasoned 
his  wonderful  gifts  he  might  be  living  to-day. 

(3)  The  habit  of  study  saves  the  preacher  from 
encouraging  and  becoming  involved  in  petty  neigh¬ 
bourhood  gossip  and  jealousy.  It  is  a  sad  day 
when  the  preacher  quits  studying  and  goes  to  gos¬ 
siping.  The  one  is  pretty  sure  to  come  in  at  the 
door  when  the  other  goes  out  at  the  window. 
While  his  mind  is  full  of  the  great  truths  he  is  con¬ 
stantly  discovering  in  God’s  word  or  of  great  en¬ 
terprises  being  planned  or  wrought  out  for  the 
kingdom  he  is  practically  immune  from  the  toy 
tempest  that  may  be  brewing  in  the  neighbourhood 
teapot.  But  if  his  mind  is  not  occupied  with  the 
great  main  things  he  will  without  knowing  how  it 


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happened  find  himself  obsessed  with  trifling,  in¬ 
consequential  neighbourhood  peccadilloes.  If  a 
preacher  will  save  himself  and  his  people  from  the 
blight  of  frivolous  fads,  puerile  jealousies  and 
petty  strifes  let  him  live,  and  lead  his  people  to  live, 
in  the  realm  of  great  truths,  noble  ideals  and  lofty 
enterprises.  When  Paul  urged  Timothy  to  “  re¬ 
fuse  profane  and  old  wives’  fables  ”  he  meant,  to 
put  it  in  modern  English,  that  the  preacher  must 
keep  his  fingers  out  of,  and  his  mind  off  of  neigh¬ 
bourhood  gossip.  The  man  who  plants  his  seed 
thought  in  Lilliput  will  never  reap  his  deed  crop  in 
Brobdingnag.  A  boy,  the  owner  of  bantam  chick¬ 
ens,  disappointed  with  the  size  of  their  eggs,  sus¬ 
pended  an  ostrich  egg  in  front  of  their  nests  on 
which  he  had  inscribed,  “  Look  at  this  and  do  your 
best.”  Without  knowing  it  he  was  illustrating  a 
great  psychological  principle.  Only  the  devoutly 
studious  preacher  can  have  what  Paul  called  the 
heavenly  vision  ”  and  only  such  preacher  can  save 
himself  and  his  people  from  the  clog  of  littleness, 
the  surfeit  of  trivialities,  the  blight  of  the  puny 
politicaster.  Lowell’s  men  with  empires  in  their 
brains  ”  will  have  neither  space  nor  taste  nor  talent 
for  street-corner  gossip. 

III.  Temperamental  Qualifications.  Not  every 
healthy,  brainy,  pious,  consecrated  man  would 
make  a  good  preacher.  With  the  poet,  the  artist, 
the  musician,  the  warrior,  the  scientist,  the  me¬ 
chanic,  the  farmer,  success  will  be  largely  a  matter 


138 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


of  temperament.  Even  so  with  the  preacher.  This 
subtle  psychological  principle  is  recognized  when 
we  speak  of  the  pastor  heart.”  Let  us  briefly 
consider  some  of  these  temperamental  qualifica¬ 
tions  peculiar  to  the  preacher. 

(1)  Optimism.  The  man  prone  to  see  the  hole 
and  overlook  the  doughnut  has  answered  some 
other  man’s  call  and  is  wasting  his  time  in  a  theo¬ 
logical  seminary.  No  amount  of  training  can 
make  a  preacher  of  him.  The  only  hope  for  him 
is  that  his  trouble  may  be  symptomatic  and  not  con¬ 
stitutional,  for  Beecher  is  right  in  maintaining  that 
good  nature  is  often  a  mere  matter  of  health,  and 
I  would  add  that  despondency  may  be  due  to  his 
being  for  the  time  out  of  touch  with  God.  Every 
real  preacher  knows  experimentally  the  truth  of 
the  hymn  our  mothers  sang: 

How  tedious  and  tasteless  the  hours 
When  Jesus  no  longer  I  see; 

Sweet  prospects,  sweet  birds  and  sweet  flowers 
Have  all  lost  their  sweetness  to  me. 

The  midsummer’s  sun  shines  but  dim. 

The  fields  strive  in  vain  to  look  gay ; 

But  when  I  am  happy  in  Him 
December’s  as  pleasant  as  May.” 

If  he  has  tried  every  remedy  and  finds  that  dolor¬ 
ous  dolefulness  is  still  the  burden  of  his  ministry 
let  him  give  up  preaching  and  try  for  an  under¬ 
taker. 


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139 


(3)  Altruism.  When  William  Booth  deter¬ 
mined  to  send  a  heartening  message  to  his  Salva¬ 
tion  Army  captains  around  the  world  he  cabled  the 
one  word  “  Others.”  The  preacher  is  not  to  look 
out  for  himself  but  for  others.  In  my  early  min¬ 
istry  a  somewhat  self-centered  parishioner  an¬ 
nounced  his  wish  that  the  pastor  would  attend  to 
his  own  business  and  let  other  people  alone.  Cer¬ 
tainly  the  preacher  should  not  be  an  officious  med¬ 
dler,  but  the  parishioner  aforesaid  forgot  or  prob¬ 
ably  never  knew  that  the  pastor’s  one  and  only 
business  in  life  is  to  look  after  other  people.  Al¬ 
truism  is  a  part  of  the  business  of  all  other  call¬ 
ings  ;  it  is  the  whole  thing  with  the  preacher.  The 
preacher  is  sent  to  “  Tend  the  flock  of  God,  exer¬ 
cising  oversight.”  He  is  required  to  reprove,  re¬ 
buke,  exhort  with  all  longsuffering  and  teaching.” 
It  is  demanded  of  him  that  he  shall  take  heed  to 
all  the  flock  in  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made 
him  an  overseer.”  It  is  taught  in  Hebrews  13 :  17 
that  the  pastor  shall  give  account  to  God  and  not 
to  men  for  the  diligence  with  which  he  has  watched 
men  in  behalf  of  their  souls. 

(3)  Sympathy.  The  ideal  pastor  suffers  in 
every  sorrow  that  comes  to  any  of  his  people  and 
rejoices  in  every  joy  of  theirs.  A  blight  is  on  the 
preacher  whose  pastoral  functions  are  performed 
in  cold,  perfunctory  officialism.  The  preacher’s 
constant  temptation  Is  professionalism.  The  ma¬ 
chine-made  preacher,  scrupulously  punctilious  in 


140 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


the  details  of  duty  but  minus  a  sympathetic  heart, 
is  as  chilling  and  incongruous  and  gruesome  as  a 
skeleton  at  a  marriage  feast.  Sharing  the  sorrows 
of  his  people  is  often  the  bitterest  cup  the  pastor 
must  drink,  but  it  is  an  essential,  infallible,  God- 
appointed  source  of  power.  Sympathy  is  innate 
but  it  is  a  quality  susceptible  of  infinite  develop¬ 
ment.  Happy  the  preacher  who  guards  against 
the  cynicism  that  would  repress  it  and  keeps  his 
heart  in  an  atmosphere  conducive  to  its  growth. 
Honest  tears  when  his  people  weep  and  unfeigned 
joy  when  his  people  rejoice  will  ever  be  a  distin¬ 
guishing  mark  of  the  true  pastor. 

(4)  Moral  Earnestness.  The  phlegmatic  tem¬ 
perament  is  good  for  some  callings  but  it  is  fatal  to 
the  preacher.  A  cool,  calculating,  imperturbable 
man  may  be  worth  fifty  thousand  a  year  in  manag¬ 
ing  a  great  business  enterprise,  but  he  would  not  be 
worth  a  farthing  as  a  preacher.  Our  word  zeal 
comes  from  a  verb  that  means  ‘‘  to  boil.”  Till  the 
water  boils  there  is  no  steam  in  the  engine,  and 
where  there  is  no  steam  there  is  no  power.  When 
the  preacher’s  heart  ceases  to  boil  his  power  is  gone. 
It  is  freely  admitted  that  one  of  the  weaknesses  of 
the  average  pastorate  is  a  lack  of  organization  and 
careful  planning,  but  experience  abundantly 
proves  that  the  best  calculated  plans  are  fruit¬ 
less  unless  they  are  permeated  and  interpenetrated 
with  the  dynamic  of  a  hot-hearted  pastor.  In  the 
ancient  mythology  a  fire  was  kept  burning  on  the 


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altar  of  Vesta.  From  it  the  sacred  fire  on  every 
family  hearthstone  was  lighted.  It  was  counted  so 
important  that  certain  virgins  were  dedicated  to 
the  task  of  seeing  that  this  fire  was  never  extin¬ 
guished.  Is  there  not  a  large  sense  in  which  the 
fire  of  religious  enthusiasm  and  consecration  in  the 
homes  of  his  people  will  depend  upon  the  flame  that 
burns  in  the  preacher’s  own  heart.  To  the  an¬ 
cients  extinguishing  the  fire  on  Vesta’s  altar  would 
have  been  reckoned  an  unspeakable  calamity. 
When  the  fires  of  moral  earnestness  no  longer  burn 
in  the  pastor’s  heart  the  church  is  truly  in  a  bad 
way.  Fortunate  the  church  whose  pastor  can 
truthfully  say  with  the  Psalmist,  “  My  zeal  (my 
heart-boiling)  for  thine  house  hath  consumed  me.” 
Whatever  may  be  permissible  in  others,  with  the 
preacher  this  must  not  be  an  intermittent  flame. 
Whatever  others  may  do,  let  the  preacher  summon 
every  vestal  virgin  of  human  agency  and  of  divine 
grace  to  keep  the  fires  of  moral  earnestness  burning 
on  his  heart’s  altar. 


VIII 


SOME  QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  OF¬ 
FICE-MORAL  AND  SPIRITUAL 

The  bishop  must  he  blameless.” — Titus  1:  7. 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  discussed 
the  physical,  intellectual  and  temperamental 
qualifications  for  the  preacher’s  office.  This 
chapter  will  be  given  to  a  discussion  of  moral  and 
spiritual  qualifications  as  drawn  from  Paul’s  teach¬ 
ing  in  his  letters  to  Timothy  and  Titus  and  in  his 
biography  in  the  book  of  Acts.  In  his  letters  to 
these  two  young  brethren  and  in  this  brief  biog¬ 
raphy  he  quite  clearly  delineates  the  type  of  man 
the  gospel  preacher  should  be.  With  these  letters 
and  this  biography  open  before  us  let  us  see  what 
picture  Paul  draws  of  the  ideal  young  preacher  in 
his  moral  and  spiritual  nature. 
p,--'  1.  He  is  one  who  unll  not  run  from  a  difficult 

field.  Most  of  our  lamentably  frequent  pastoral 
^  changes  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the  preacher  is  un¬ 
willing  to  go  up  against  a  hard  situation.  In  the 
language  of  the  gridiron,  ‘‘  He  won’t  buck  the 
:  line.”  Timothy  was  pastor  at  Ephesus.  The 
church  was  infected  with  heresy  and  infested  with 
;  heretics.  The  young  preacher  was  ready  to  quit, 

f  but  Paul  exhorted  him  to  tarry  at  Ephesus  ( 1  Tim. 

142 


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143 


^1:  3).  He  did,  and  it  made  a  man  of  him.  My 
dear  young  brother,  if  you  are  up  against  a  hard 
situation  on  your  field,  don’t  run  away  from  it. 
You  will  never  recover  from  the  moral  degenera- 
i  tion  such  a  course  would  produce.  In  1  Corin¬ 
thians  16:  9  Paul  is  writing  from  this  same  hard 
field  at  Ephesus  and  gives  its  difficulties  as  one  of 
his  reasons  for  staying  there.  Nothing  is  more  hu¬ 
miliating  than  the  fact  that  among  the  preachers  so 
many  of  us  are  unwilling  to  endure  hardship.  De¬ 
siring  to  be  clothed  in  soft  raiment,  we  become  a 
reed  shaken  by  the  wind.  When  Paul  talked  about 
his  hard  field  he  said  he  would  tarry  at  Ephesus  till 
Pentecost.  Stay  and  suffer  on  your  hard  field,  my 
young  brother,  and  before  you  know  it  Pentecost 
will  come.  Yours  is  a  hard  field,  and  so  are  all  the 
others.  Don’t  quit.  Tarry  at  Ephesus. 

In  2  Timothy  2:  3  the  young  preacher  is  ex¬ 
horted  to  take  his  part  in  suffering  hardship  as  a 
/  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  Nothing  threatens 
Christianity’s  prestige  more  than  the  unwillingness 
of  its  disciples  to  suffer  for  it.  If  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  church,  seed  corn  is  not 
over  abundant  in  the  twentieth  century.  Ease- 
loving,  self-seeking  ambitious  disciples  have  been 
the  outstanding  menace  of  Christianity  from  the 
day  of  its  Founder  until  now.  John  the  Baptist 
was  willing  to  decrease  that  his  Master  might  in¬ 
crease.  Was  he  an  exception  then?  Is  the  spirit 
he  showed  an  exception  now?  One  is  a  little  in- 


144 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


dined  to  think  so  if  he  is,  as  some  of  us  are,  in  a 
position  to  see  the  loudest  professions  of  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  spirit  attended  with  constant  scheming  for 
soft  places  of  ease  and  honour.  But  let  us  not 
grow  pessimistic,  though  we  thus  speak.  All 
about  us  are  glorious  gospel  preachers,  many  of 
them,  yea  most  of  them,  silent  and  unobtrusive 
and  obscure,  who  for  the  little  good  that  they  may 
do  in  their  unnoticed  corners  are  living  a  martyr’s 
life  and  are  ready  to  die  a  martyr’s  death.  A  man 
may  find  selfishness  and  the  love  of  ease  and  pleas¬ 
ure  among  preachers  if  he  looks  for  it,  but,  thank 
God,  an  equally  diligent  search  will  reveal  to  him 
the  other  spirit  also.  The  arbitrary  self-mortifica¬ 
tions  and  voluntary  macerations  of  the  dark  ages 
disgust  us,  but  the  truth  remains  that'^he  preacher’s 
best  credential  of  a  call  to  preach  is  his  willingness 
to  suffer  that  he  may  preach. 

2.  He  is  one  who  is  always  on  the  right  side. 
When  Paul  said,  I  have  fought  the  good  fight,” 
he  was  not  praising  himself  for  the  way  he  fought 
but  he  was  praising  the  side  he  fought  on — not 
good  fighting  but  a  good  fight.  Nothing  is  more 
discouraging  than  a  vacillating  preacher, 

“  Standing  first  on  one  foot,  then  on  t’other. 

On  which  foot  he  feels  the  worst  he  could  not  tell 
you  nother.” 

Nothing  is  more  satisfying  than  to  have  a 
preacher  of  whom  one  is  sure  that  he  will  always 


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145 


be  found  on  the  right  side.  A  brilliant  woman  dis¬ 
cussing  a  prospective  pastor,  was  informed  that 
while  he  had  been  wrong  in  doctrine  he  had  come 
right.  She  answered  at  once, ''  I  don't  want  a  pas¬ 
tor  who  had  to  come  right.  I  want  one  who  has 
always  been  right."  Some  of  us,  perhaps  all  of  us, 
rejoice  that  there  is  a  chance  for  John  Mark  to 
come  right  even  after  he  has  gone  wrong.  But 
John  Mark  limping  back  from  error  in  doctrine  or 
lapse  in  character  will  never  regain  power  and 
prestige  lost  while  training  on  the  wrong  side.  In 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  there  are  two 
men,  brilliant,  genial  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  hon¬ 
ourable,  whose  usefulness  has  been  practically 
ruined  by  a  fatal  penchant  for  getting  on  the 
wrong  side  of  every  denominational  question. 
They  are  fearless,  chivalrous  fighters,  but  they  usu- 
ally  fight  on  the  wrong  side.  Practical  application 
of  David  Crockett's  motto,  ‘‘  Be  sure  you  are  right; 
then  go  ahead,"  would  have  saved  some  preachers 
of  my  acquaintance  from  making  shipwreck  of  life. 
To  the  young  preacher  it  is  of  vital  importance 
that  his  career  shall  be  started  right — not  only  in 
doctrine  and  character  but  in  cooperation,  align- 
^  ment,  comradeship.  A  man's  value  to  society  will 
depend  more  upon  the  side  he  chooses  to  fight  on 
than  upon  the  character  of  fight  he  makes.  What 
a  benediction  it  brings  to  a  3^oung  preacher  when 
he  discovers  himself  vitally  linked  with  a  great 
movement  or  closely  bound  in  comradeship  with  a 


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noble  man!  All  the  knighthood  of  noble  youth 
guarantees  that  you  will  make  a  gallant  fight.  But 
quiet  those  noble  but  tumultuous  impulses  for  a 
moment  before  sword  is  drawn  or  gauntlet  thrown. 
Let  us  be  sure,  quite  sure,  that  we  are  fighting  on 
the  right  side. 

3.  He  is  one  who  respects  constituted  authority. 
Paul  speaks  of  him  as  one  who  is  subject  to  rulers, 
to  authority,  no  striker,  no  brawler.  If  human 
law  forbids  what  God’s  law  requires  or  requires 
what  God’s  law  forbids  the  Christian  is  not  only 
not  bound  to  keep  it  but  is  bound  to  break  it. 
Peter  set  the  pace  for  every  preacher,  and  indeed 
for  every  Christian,  when  he  said,  “We  must  obey 
God  rather  than  men.”  If  the  government  passes 
a  law  that  forbids  preaching  the  preacher  is  bound 
to  violate  that  law,  even  at  the  cost  of  his  life.  But 
if  a  city,  to  prevent  congestion  of  traffic,  forbids 
public  assemblies  of  any  kind  in  certain  narrow 
busy  streets,  the  preacher  blunders  in  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  this  principle  when  he  insists  on  preaching 
there.  If  the  law,  civil  or  domestic,  forbids  ad¬ 
ministering  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  the  preacher 
is  bound  to  break  it,  but  when  a  preacher  takes  a 
ten-year-old  child  out  of  the  atmosphere  of  an  emo¬ 
tional  revival  meeting  and  baptizes  it  contrary  to 
the  will  of  its  parents,  he  has  blundered  and  caused 
the  child  to  blunder  in  the  application  of  this  prin¬ 
ciple.  The  Scriptures  require  that  Christian  peo¬ 
ple  shall  not  forsake  the  assembling  of  themselves 


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147 


together  and  the  preacher  is  not  blameless  if  he 
fails  to  urge  obedience  to  the  injunction.  But  if, 
to  prevent  the  spread  of  disease,  a  city  passes  a  law- 
forbidding  public  gatherings  for  a  season,  the 
preacher  who  insists  on  gathering  his  crowd  in  the 
face  of  that  law  blunders  in  the  application  of  our 
principle.  If  God’s  law  requires  that  a  thing  be 
done  now  and  here  and  thus,  the  preacher  has  no 
alternative.  But  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  how  the 
words  ''  now  ”  and  “  here  ”  and  ‘‘  thus  ”  will  help 
in  applying  God’s  law  to  practical  life. 

4.  He  is  one  whose  every  relation  is  marked 
with  courtesy  and  propriety,  Do  not  upbraid  an 
elderly  man,  but  exhort  him  as  a  father,  the  elderly 
women  as  mothers,  the  younger  women  as  sisters, 
in  all  purity.  Honour  those  widows  who  are  really 
widows  ”  (1  Tim.  5:1).  Courtesy  is  the  mark  of 
a  gentleman.  It  is  inherent  with  a  real  gentleman, 
but  like  every  innate  quality,  it  may  be  either  re¬ 
tarded  or  developed.  His  becoming  demeanour 
toward  those  in  different  stations  about  him  is  a 
prophecy  of  the  young  preacher’s  career.  Far  too 
little  does  the  average  preacher  estimate  the  value 
j^  'Of  these  social  amenities.  Courtesy  costs  less  and 
pays  a  larger  dividend  than  any  other  human  in- 
V  vestment.  Some  of  us  have  been  so  anxious  to  be 
candid  that  we  have  sometimes  forgotten  to  be 
courteous.  Suaviter  in  modo  is  by  no  means  in¬ 
compatible  with  for  titer  in  re.  Courtesy  is  in¬ 
digenous  to  a  kind  heart.  If  found  elsewhere  it  is 


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an  exotic.  The  real  thing  is  spontaneous  and  un¬ 
studied.  Given  a  kind  heart  and  it  does  not  need 
to  be  forced,  but  droppeth  like  the  gentle  rain 
from  heaven  upon  the  place  beneath.  It  is  twice 
blessed;  it  blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that 
takes.  It  is  mightiest  in  the  mightiest.’'  The 
preacher  shows  to  the  best  advantage  when  cour¬ 
tesy  seasons  sincerity.  Truth  will  win  its  way 
quickest  where  courtesy  is  the  handmaiden  of  or¬ 
thodoxy. 

Especially  would  I  speak  a  word  about  the 
young  minister’s  attitude  toward  old  preachers — 
the  veterans  of  the  cross.  Paul  exhorts  Timothy 
(2  Tim.  1:  8),  ‘'Be  not  ashamed  of  the  testimony 
of  the  Lord  nor  of  me  his  prisoner,”  and  a  little 
later  he  says,  “  Come  to  me  shortly,”  and  still 
further,  “  The  cloak  which  I  left  at  Troas  bring 
when  thou  comest  and  the  books  and  especially  the 
parchments.”  In  these  verses  Paul  paid  a  high 
compliment  to  Timothy.  Had  Paul  thought  of 
Timothy  as  a  self-seeking,  carnally  minded,  pro¬ 
fessional  theologue  he  would  have  known  that  it 
was  useless  to  count  on  any  consideration  from 
him.  That  sort  of  young  preacher  would  have 
said,  “  The  old  fire  eater  has  gotten  himself  into 
trouble  by  always  preaching  doctrinal  sermons  and 
not  knowing  when  or  where  nor  how  to  preach. 
He  need  not  think  I  am  going  to  waste  my  time 
carrying  him  a  lot  of  luggage.  I  am  too  busy  fin¬ 
ishing  my  thesis  on  the  World  Problem  of  Home 


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149 


Rule  in  Kalahari  Desert  to  waste  any  of  it  on  a 
worn-out  old  theological  controversialist.  If  he 
had  been  discreet  he  would  not  have  been  in  all  this 
mess  anyway.^’  But  Paul  knew  Timothy — that  he 
was  not  cut  out  according  to  that  pattern.  He 
knew  Timothy  would  say,  This  unusual  request 
comes  at  my  busiest  time,  but  here  is  a  veteran  of 
the  cross  who  for  a  third  of  a  century  has  fought 
the  battles  of  my  people.  He  is  perhaps  out  of  the 
running  now  but  out  of  reverence  for  his  noble  life 
and  out  of  gratitude  for  his  sacrificial  achievements 
I  shall  do  my  best  for  the  comfort  of  his  last  days.'’ 
The  young  preacher's  attitude  toward  the  veteran 
and  pioneer  of  the  cross  is  an  accurate  index  of  his 
character.  In  the  palmiest  days  of  B.  H.  Carroll's 
brilliant  career  there  occasionally  drove  to  his  gate 
in  a  rickety  old  buggy,  R.  S.  Hurt,  a  veteran  fron¬ 
tier  missionary.  Unlettered  and  poorly  clad  and 
tottering  with  age,  he  was  always  an  honour-guest. 
I  have  seen  the  knightly  younger  preacher  slip  the 
old  man's  rough  shoes  out  of  his  room  at  night  and 
polish  them  while  he  slept — thus  fulfilling  in  spirit 
the  Master's  command  to  wash  one  another's  feet 
and  thus  also  fulfilling  the  spirit  of  Paul's  exhorta¬ 
tion  when  he  begged  Timothy  not  to  be  ashamed  of 
him — the  aged  veteran  of  the  cross. 

But  Paul  especially  warns  the  young  preacher 
touching  his  relation  to  younger  women  (1  Tim. 
5:2).  This  warning,  of  course,  includes  those 
grosser  immoralities  to  which  the  young  preacher 


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is  perhaps  often  tempted,  and  before  which  he 
sometimes  falls.  What  a  tragedy  if  a  young 
preacher’s  attitude  toward  women  is  such  as  to 
raise  even  a  suspicion  of  the  purity  of  his  motives 
or  the  cleanness  of  his  life !  But  I  think  Paul  has 
in  mind  particularly  the  violation  of  social  proprie¬ 
ties  rather  than  the  falling  into  grosser  sin.  He  is 
perhaps  warning  against  silliness  more  than  against 
sin.  A  preacher  can  easily  wreck  his  influence  by 
a  foolish  attitude  toward  women,  even  when  no¬ 
body  suspects  sin  either  in  act  or  intent.  A  young 
preacher  holding  a  rather  important  denomina¬ 
tional  position  dropped  in  not  long  since  on  the 
pastorate  of  a  friend  of  mine  and  in  one  day  pro¬ 
posed  marriage  to  three  separate  young  ladies,  beg¬ 
ging  each  one  to  get  on  her  knees  with  him  and 
pray  that  God  would  show  Plis  will  in  the  matter. 
When  the  young  ladies  compared  notes  the  next 
day  each  “  let  the  cat  oiJt  of  the  wallet  ”  and  the 
young  man’s  opportunity  to  serve  any  good  cause 
in  that  community  suddenly  and  permanently  ter- 
^  minated.  The  people  may  forgive  a  sinner,  but  it 
is  hard  to  get  them  to  forgive  a  fool.  It  some- 
^  times  seems  that  when  a  young  preacher  turns 
foolish  he  can  be  foolish  in  more  ways  than  any 
man  in  the  world.  When  Paul  said,  “  Let  no  man 
despise  thy  youth,”  he  meant  that  the  young 
preacher  must  be  so  circumspect  in  conduct  that  he 
would  not  by  youthful  folly  give  any  occasion  for 
contemptuous  judgments. 


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151 


5.  He  is  one  who  is  concerned  about  the  doc¬ 
trines  of  his  people.  Paul  urged  Timothy  to  re¬ 
main  in  Ephesus,  not  to  finish  the  well-equipped 
meeting  house,  nor  to  round  out  a  large  collection 
for  missions,  nor  to  carry  a  class  through  a  course 
in  teacher  training,  but  to  correct  certain  false  doc¬ 
trines  that  had  crept  in  (1  Tim.  1:3).  If  our  fa¬ 
thers  erred  in  the  overemphasis  of  doctrine  to  the 
neglect  and  hurt  of  altruism  and  methods,  have  we 
not  gone  wrong  at  the  other  extreme  in  laying  em¬ 
phasis  on  altruism  and  methods  to  the  almost  total 
neglect  of  the  systematic  house-to-house,  personal, 
pastoral  teaching  of  our  doctrines  ?  To  a  sensitive 
nature  nothing  is  more  humiliating  and  to  a 
thoughtful  man  nothing  more  alarming  than  the 
indifferent  attitude  many  of  our  young  pastors  as¬ 
sume  toward  the  matter  of  indoctrinating  their 
people.  The  spirit  of  these  lectures  responds 
heartily  to  the  modern  emphasis  on  altruism  and 
the  modern  search  for  better  methods  in  doing  our 
work.  But  I  tremble  for  the  day  when  we  shall 
have  kind  hearts  that  shall  long  to  carry  a  blessing 
to  others  and  splendid  methods  of  carrying  this 
blessing  and  discover  at  last  that  we  have  nothing 
to  carry.  What  is  the  use  of  a  kind-hearted  crew 
and  a  well-equipped  vessel,  if  we  have  nothing 
worth  while  to  put  on  it  ?  May  every  modern  Tim¬ 
othy  hear  Paul’s  exhortation  Take  heed  to  thyself 
and  thy  teaching.”  According  to  Paul’s  opinion, 
therefore,  the  value  of  a  man’s  ministry  will  depend 


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THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


both  upon  what  he  is  and  upon  what  he  teaches. 
Strong  men  cannot  be  grown  by  the  gush  of  al¬ 
truistic  sentimentalities  nor  by  rhapsodies  about 
so-called  scientific  methods  of  doing  church  work. 
Stalwart  Christian  character — the  kind  that  will 
suffer  for  a  cause  and  rejoice  in  it — can  be  produced 
only  under  the  influence  of  strong  doctrinal  teach¬ 
ing.  Clark  in  his  Northampton  Antiquities  tells 
us  “  That  during  the  history  of  that  town  it  sent 
out  114  lawyers,  112  ministers,  95  physicians,  100 
educators,  7  college  presidents,  30  professors,  24 
editors,  6  historians,  14  authors,  including  George 
Bancroft,  John  Lathrop,  Motley,  Professor  Whit¬ 
ney  and  J.  G.  Holland,  38  officers  of  state,  28  offi¬ 
cers  of  the  United  States,  including  members  of 
the  Senate  and  one  President.”  I  cannot  but  be¬ 
lieve  that  there  is  vital  relation  between  the  facts 
cited  from  Mr.  Clark  and  the  further  fact,  which 
he  does  not  mention,  that  Jonathan  Edwards,  the 
stalwart  and  sometimes  grim  doctrinal  preacher, 
was  pastor  in  that  town  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  Did  the  doctrinal  preaching  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  have  any  part  in  the  making  of  these 
men?  I  believe  it  did. 

A  friend  of  mine  said  recently  that  in  the  Texas 
church  where  he  grew  up  they  never  had  a  prayer¬ 
meeting,  but  that  what  was  called  the  prayer-meet¬ 
ing  was  really  a  debating  society  where  a  few 
preachers,  members  of  the  church,  studied  and  ar¬ 
gued  great  doctrines  of  the  Bible.  He  was  deplor- 


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153 


ing  that  his  boyhood  church  life  should  have  been 
spent  in  that  atmosphere.  No  doubt  it  had  its 
faults  but  at  that  particular  time  there  were  three 
boys  who  were  required  to  attend  that  prayer-meet¬ 
ing  debating  society.  One  of  them  is  now  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  and  useful  pastors  in  the  South¬ 
west;  another  is  one  of  the  most  successful  and 
spiritually  intelligent  laymen  in  the  entire  country, 
and  the  other  is  president  of  one  of  the  largest 
theological  seminaries  in  America  and  is  espe¬ 
cially  famous  for  the  perspicuity  with  which  he  can 
state  a  spiritual  truth.  Is  there  any  relation  be¬ 
tween  the  recognized  stalwart  character  of  these 
three  men  and  the  big  doctrines  with  which  they 
were  compelled  to  wrestle  when  they  were  boys? 
To  my  thinking  there  is  but  one  answer.  It  is 
a  great  thing  when  a  trained,  altruistic,  courteous 
young  preacher  determines  that  he  will  (dedicate 
these  qualities  to  doctrinal  preaching.  Preach  your 
doctrines,  preach  them  in  the  right  spirit  to  be  sure, 
but  preach  your  doctrines. 

6.  He  is  one  who  puts  character  at  a  premium — 
who  zvould  rather  he  than  seem.  In  2  Timothy 
2:  15  he  is  exhorted  to  give  diligence  that  he  may 
present  himself  acceptable  unto  God.  If  a  man 
says  he  does  not  care  for  his  reputation  so  his  char¬ 
acter  is  all  right  he  is  very  foolish.  If  he  says  it 
does  not  matter  what  men  think  of  him  so  he  is  all 
right  with  God  he  is  positively  silly.  Every  right- 
thinking  man  does  care  what  other  men  think  of 


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THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


him.  Paul  required,  in  Romans  13: 17,  that  we 
take  thought  for  things  honourable  in  the  sight  of 
all  men.  Every  good  man  is  concerned  for  the  good 
opinion  of  his  fellow-men,  but  no  right-thinking 
man  will  put  the  approval  of  men  above  the  ap¬ 
proval  of  God-4-reputation  above  character.  The 
largest  of  the  preacher’s  assets  is  character.  That 
which  counts  most  is  not  what  he  says  nor  what  he 
does  nor  what  he  knows,  nor  what  he  has  but  what 
he  is.  The  Greeks  were  wont  to  say  ‘‘  Phocion’s 
character  is  more  than  the  constitution.”  On  his 
death-bed  Horace  Greeley  said,  “  Fame  is  a  va¬ 
pour,  popularity  an  accident,  riches  take  wings; 
those  who  cheer  to-day  will  curse  to-morrow ;  only 
one  thing  endures — ^^character.”  The  one  all  in¬ 
clusive  word  to  describe  the  moral  qualifications  of 
the  preacher  is — character.  The  greatest  fact  in 
this  world  is  not  an  event — a  battle,  an  earthquake, 
a  birth,  a  death ;  the  greatest  fact  in  this  world  is  a 
person.  The  greatest  thing  in  a  person  is  his  char¬ 
acter.  Character  is  more  than  the  acquisition  of 
facts;  more  than  brilliant  achievements;  more  than 
delivering  the  goods ;  more  than  winning  the  game ; 
more  than  self-control;  more  than  obedience  to 
precepts  and  prohibitions.  Character  is  the  inner 
gold  that  gives  real  value  to  human  life.  It  is  a 
sad  day  for  us  when  a  church  or  a  pulpit  committee 
shows  little  concern  for  a  man’s  character  so  long 
as  he  is  able  to  bring  things  to  pass — ^to  deliver  the 
goods. 


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165 


The  ideal  young  preacher  is  also  one  who  would 
rather  be  than  have.  Paul  warns  us  that  there  are 
those  who  adopt  godliness  as  a  way  of  gain 
(1  Tim.  6:5),  thus  subordinating  character  to  the 
mere  matter  of  getting  money.  His  words  on  the 
preeminence  of  character  above  mere  possession 
are  so  cogent  and  so  pertinent  and  so  much  needed 
in  this  day,  threatening  as  it  does  the  commercializ¬ 
ing  of  the  entire  thinking  of  the  ministry,  that  I 
wish  to  set  them  out  in  special  prominence  and  beg 
every  young  preacher  to  heed  the  timely  truth  they 
contain. 

But  godliness  with  contentment  is  great  gain:  for 
we  brought  nothing  into  the  world,  for  neither  can 
we  carry  anything  out;  but  having  food  and  covering 
we  shall  be  therewith  content.  But  they  that  are 
minded  to  be  rich  fall  into  a  temptation  and  a  snare 
and  many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  such  as  drown 
men  in  destruction  and  perdition.  For  the  love  of 
money  is  a  root  of  all  kinds  of  evil:  which  some 
reaching  after  have  been  led  astray  from  the  faith, 
and  have  pierced  themselves  through  with  many  sor¬ 
rows.  But  thou,  O  man  of  God,  flee  these  things; 
and  follow  after  righteousness,  godliness,  faith,  love, 
patience,  meekness.  Fight  the  good  fight  of  the  faith, 
lay  hold  on  the  life  eternal,  thereunto  thou  wast 
called,  and  didst  confess  the  good  confession  in  the 
sight  of  many  witnesses.  I  charge  thee  in  the  sight 
of  God,  who  giveth  life  to  all  things,  and  of  Christ 
Jesus,  who  before  Pontius  Pilate  witnessed  the  good 
confession;  that  thou  keep  the  commandment,  with- 


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out  spot,  without  reproach,  until  the  appearing  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ” — i  Timothy  6:6-14. 

There  are  many  fools  in  the  world  but  the  most 
consummate  fool  that  walks  is  the  preacher  who 
will  deliberately  choose  to  have  something  of  this 
world’s  goods  rather  than  being  something  in  God’s 
sight. 

7.  Another  high  moral  quality  of  the  ideal 
young  preacher  is  that  he  knows  how  to  profit  by 
wholesome  example.  As  if  he  confidently  expected 
his  protege  to  profit  by  it,  Paul  reminds  Timothy 
of  his  own  example.  In  2  Timothy  3:  10-11  he 
says :  ‘‘  But  thou  didst  follow  my  teaching,  con¬ 
duct,  purpose,  faith,  longsuffering,  love,  patience, 
persecutions,  sufferings;  what  things  befell  me  at 
Antioch,  at  Iconium,  at  Lystra;  what  persecutions 
I  endured:  and  out  of  them  all  the  Lord  delivered 
me.”  No  doubt  Timothy’s  noble  heart  had  been 
often  aroused  to  high  ambitions  and  sacrificial 
deeds  by  dwelling  affectionately  upon  the  zealous 
and  unselfish  service  rendered  by  his  venerable 
friend  and  patron.  If  a  young  preacher  can  read, 
for  example,  the  thrilling  story  of  Z.  N.  Morill’s 
life  and  labours  in  Texas,  or  as  for  that  the  story 
of  any  of  our  pioneers  either  on  home  or  foreign 
fields,  and  not  find  himself  under  the  example  of 
their  heroic  souls,  longing  for  a  more  unselfishly 
zealous  life,  he  ought  to  give  up  the  ministry.  The 
man  whose  soul  does  not  respond  to  such  lofty 


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167 


examples  of  devoted  service  ought  not  to  be  a 
preacher.  He  is  temperamentally  qualified  for  no 
position  higher  than  a  street  sweeper.  He  may  be 
a  good  man  and  may  do  honest  commendable  work 
as  a  street  sweeper,  but  he  has  not  the  verve,  the 
vivacity  of  imagination,  the  instinctive  reverence 
for  high  and  noble  things  to  make  a  preacher. 
Nothing  is  more  pitiable  than  the  young  preacher 
who  has  allowed  himself  to  believe  that  the  fathers 
did  not  know  much  and  could  not  do  much — and 
who  has  brought  himself  to  discount  in  his  thinking 
the  past  achievements  and  the  present  potentialities 
of  the  old  men  in  his  circle  of  acquaintance. 

Some  years  ago  a  group  of  us  were  guests  in  a 
home  during  the  session  of  the  Simmons  College 
Winter  Bible  School.  The  conversation  turned  to 
the  session  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  at 
Waco  in  1883.  Some  one  said  to  me,  “  Did  you 
hear  J.  R.  Graves’  wonderful  sermon  at  the  Meth¬ 
odist  Church  during  that  session  ?  ”  On  receiving 
an  affirmative  reply  he  continued,  “  Did  not  you 
think  it  was  the  most  wonderful  sermon  you  ever 
heard?”  To  which  I  replied,  “To  tell  you  the 
truth,  I  had  such  a  bad  case  of  the  ‘  big  head  ’ 
about  that  time  that  I  could  not  give  an  old  man 
much  credit  for  anything  he  did.”  At  this  juncture 
the  venerable  grandmother  in  the  home  turning  to 
me  said,  “  Did  you  say  you  had  the  ‘  big  head  ’  ?  ” 
On  my  admitting  that  she  had  correctly  interpreted 
my  language  she  said :  “And  what  did  you  have  to 


158 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


have  the  ‘  big  head  ^  about  ?  ”  I  answered  quite 
frankly,  “Nothing,  sister,  nothing  on  earth;  but 
that  is  the  sort  that  always  has  it.’’  Happy  the 
young  man  who  can  live  long  enough  to  recover  at 
least  measurably  from  such  self -inflation  and  who 
can  be  brought  to  that  state  of  mind  where  he  is 
able  to  learn  from  the  example  of  men  of  the  pre¬ 
vious  generation. 

8.  He  is  one  zvho  gives  no  room  for  scandalous 
talk  about  himself.  In  1  Timothy  3:7  it  is  re¬ 
quired  “  He  must  have  a  good  report  of  them  that 
are  without  lest  he  fall  into  reproach  and  the  snare 
of  the  devil.”  In  2  Timothy  2:  15  he  is  com¬ 
manded  “  Give  diligence  to  show  thyself  approved 
unto  God,  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be 
ashamed,”  and  in  1  Timothy  4:  11  he  is  told  “  Let 
no  man  despise  thy  youth,  but  be  thou  an  example 
of  the  believers,  in  word,  in  conversation,  in  char¬ 
ity,  in  spirit,  in  faith,  in  purity.”  In  2  Timothy 
2:22  the  young  preacher  is  required  to  “Flee 
youthful  lusts  but  follow  righteousness,  faith,  char¬ 
ity,  peace,  with  them  that  call  on  the  Lord  out  of  a 
pure  heart.” 

All  this  and  much  more  of  the  same  import  is 
said  in  Scripture  because  it  is  so  vitally  important 
that  the  preacher  should  be  a  man  with  clean  hands 
and  an  unsullied  name.  Every  holy  cause  bleeds 
and  every  noble  enterprise  languishes  where  the 
preachers  are  men  of  doubtful  character.  Let  the 
preacher  give  well-founded  occasion  for  a  breath 


/ 


SOME  QUALIFICATIONS  169 

of  scandal  connected  with  his  name  and  he  has 
given  the  cause  of  Christ  a  wound  for  which  he  can 
never  atone.  How  fortunate  the  minister  who 
through  his  whole  life  has  so  avoided  evil,  and  even 
the  appearance  of  evil,  that  there  has  never  been  a 
breath  of  scandal  connected  with  his  name. 

9.  He  will  he  a  diligent  student  of  the  word  of 
God.  Other  books  he  may  know,  but  the  word  of 
God  he  must  know  if  he  is  to  preach  with  power. 
The  Bible,  and  not  books  about  the  Bible,  must  be 
his  chief  text-book.  Most  of  my  life  has  been 
spent  in  some  connection  with  educational  institu¬ 
tions  for  the  training  of  preachers.  Without  the 
slightest  reservation  I  believe  in  them.  But  that 
education  that  dethrones  the  Bible  as  the  source  of 
religious  information,  as  the  vehicle  of  God’s  will 
and  as  the  ultimate  authority  in  religion  is  a  blast, 
a  blight,  a  mildew  in  the  life  of  the  preacher. 

The  last  address  that  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus  ever 
made  to  his  students  was  about  Apollos,  where  it  is 
said  of  him  that  he  was  ‘‘  mighty  in  the  Scrip¬ 
tures.”  In  this  last  address,  his  swan  song,  this 
man  of  many  books,  this  man  familiar  with  the 
world’s  literature  as  few  men  have  been,  with  a 
pathos,  a  fervour  and  an  evident  sincerity  that  no 
man  who  heard  him  will  ever  forget,  insisted  that 
the  Bible  must  be  the  preacher’s  preeminent  book. 
To  the  preacher,  if  other  books  shine  as  the  stars, 
the  Bible  must  blaze  as  the  sun. 

What  higher  encomium  could  the  Holy  Spirit 


160 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


give  a  man  than  to  say  of  him  that  he  is  Mighty 
in  the  Scripture  ”  ?  What  price  would  be  too 
great  to  pay  that  the  preacher  might  become 
“  Mighty  in  the  Scripture  ’’  ?  What  increased  sta¬ 
bility,  efficiency  and  spiritual  joy  would  come  to 
our  churches  if  it  could  be  truthfully  said  of  them 
all  that  their  pastors  were  men  “  Mighty  in  the 
Scriptures  ? 

10.  He  is  one  who  exalts  prayer,  practices  the 
prayer  habit,  and  lives  the  prayer  life.  Deacons 
were  ordained  that  the  preachers  might  give  them¬ 
selves  more  continuously  to  prayer.  Praying  is 
the  preachePs  chief  business.  Once  I  thought 
otherwise,  but  experience  and  a  further  study  of 
God’s  word  leads  me  to  say  with  triple  under¬ 
scoring: 

Praying  is  the  preacher's  chief  business. 

It  is  chief  because  without  its  illuminating  and 
fructifying  and  vivifying  power  all  his  other  activi¬ 
ties  are  stale,  vapid,  mechanical,  professional,  un¬ 
profitable. 

Shall  we  give  a  little  space  to  a  study  of  Paul, 
the  prince  of  preachers,  in  his  estimate  of  prayer? 

(1)  Let  us  look  first  at  his  habit  in  the  matter  of 
the  personal  practice  of  prayer,  as  set  forth  in  his 
fragmentary  biography  in  the  book  of  Acts.  Here 
it  will  be  found  that  with  him  prayer  was  not  only 
a  recognized  duty  but  a  fixed  habit. 

(a)  He  seems  to  have  started  right,  for  the  first 
record  we  have  of  him  after  his  marvellous  con- 


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161 


version  is  where  the  Lord  said  to  Ananias,  “Arise 
and  go  to  the  street  which  is  called  Straight  and 
inquire  for  one  named  Paul,  a  man  of  Tarsus;  for 
behold  he  prayeth/'  I  wonder  if  a  difference  at 
the  beginning  in  the  habit  of  prayer  may  not,  more 
than  we  have  thought,  account  for  the  difference  in 
the  start  young  preachers  make.  In  my  hearing  a 
preacher  recently  said :  “  Looking  back  over  my 
own  life,  I  recall  young  men  who  entered  the  minis¬ 
try  with  me  with  gifts  confessedly  inferior  to  my 
own  and  with  far  less  training.  But  their  ministry 
was  abundantly  fruitful  from  the  beginning,  while 
mine  in  those  first  years  was  comparatively  barren. 
I  find  myself  wondering  with  regret  amounting  al¬ 
most  to  remorse  if  the  difference  does  not  lie  in  the 
fact  that  in  the  matter  of  praying  they  got  started 
right  and  I  did  not.^’  That  may  not  tell  the  whole 
story,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  multitudes  of 
comparatively  fruitless  preachers  may  be  explained 
in  part  at  least  by  the  fact  that  these  men  have  led 
a  comparatively  prayerless  life.  Blessed  indeed  is 
the  preacher  who  in  the  beginning  of  his  career 
found  this  secret  of  a  happy,  triumphant,  success¬ 
ful  ministry. 

(h)  But  if  we  take  a  further  look  we  shall  see 
that  Paul  was  in  the  habit  of  praying  in  times  of 
great  danger  and  distress.  In  the  sixteenth  chapter 
of  Acts,  he  was  in  jail,  in  the  dark  cell,  with  his 
feet  in  stocks,  his  garments  sticking  to  his  body 
with  the  blood  of  his  unwashed  wounds  and  every 


162 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


prospect  of  a  speedy  death.  But  we  are  told  that 
about  midnight  he  and  Silas  ‘‘  were  praying  and 
singing  hymns  unto  God.’’  When  weaker  men 
would  have  been  whining  and  bemoaning  the  hard¬ 
ships  of  the  ministry,  this  valiant  soul  betook  him¬ 
self  to  prayer  and  praise.  No  wonder  God  opened 
for  him  both  a  way  of  escape  from  danger  and  an 
opportunity  to  bring  the  greatest  blessing  to  his 
persecutor. 

(c)  Again  we  find  him  reenforcing  himself  with 
prayer  in  a  time  of  heart-breaking  farewells.  In 
his  farewell  to  the  saints  at  Ephesus  he  said:  “And 
now  behold  I  know  that  ye  all  among  whom  I  went 
about  preaching  the  kingdom  shall  see  my  face  no 
more.”  The  record  continues  “  and  when  he  had 
thus  spoken  he  kneeled  down  and  prayed  with  them 
all.”  Paul  had  all  the  instincts  of  a  gentleman. 
He  loved  his  friends  and  grieved  as  only  a  sensitive 
man  can  when  he  must  separate  from  them.  He 
was  a  loyal  patriot  and  was  doubtless  heart-stricken 
when  he  must  say  good-bye  to  his  kinsmen  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  flesh  to  become  a  minister  to  an  alien 
people.  He  doubtless  had  the  home-loving  and 
home-making  instinct  even  as  others,  but  for 
Christ’s  sake  he  never  knew  the  joy  of  a  home. 
His  life  was  peculiarly  made  up  of  farewells  to  the 
things  and  the  people  he  held  dearest.  The  one 
thing  that  made  this  nomadic  homeless  life  bearable 
was  the  atmosphere  of  prayer  in  which  he  lived  and 
moved  everywhere. 


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163 


(J)  But  by  a  further  look  into  his  biography  we 
find  prayer  opening  to  him  constantly  enlarging 
visions  of  usefulness.  Acts  22:  17-21  reads: 
“And  it  came  to  pass,  that,  when  I  had  returned  to 
Jerusalem,  and  while  I  prayed  in  the  temple,  I  fell 
into  a  trance,  and  saw  him  saying  unto  me.  Make 
haste,  and  get  thee  quickly  out  of  Jerusalem;  be¬ 
cause  they  will  not  receive  of  thy  testimony  con¬ 
cerning  me.  And  I  said.  Lord,  they  themselves 
know  that  I  imprisoned  and  beat  in  every  syna¬ 
gogue  them  that  believed  on  thee:  and  when  the 
blood  of  Stephen  thy  witness  was  shed,  I  also  was 
standing  by,  and  consenting,  and  keeping  the  gar¬ 
ments  of  them  that  slew  him.  And  he  said  unto 
me.  Depart:  for  I  will  send  thee  forth  far  hence 
unto  the  Gentiles.”  Does  any  one,  reading  this 
record,  doubt  that  there  was  a  direct  relation,  even 
the  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  between  Paul’s 
prayer  on  this  occasion  and  his  vision  of  world- 
ministry  ? 

(e)  Again  we  find  him  falling  back  upon  prayer 
as  a  place  of  refuge  and  a  source  of  power  in  a 
time  of  physical  distress.  When  he  was  ship¬ 
wrecked  on  the  Island  of  Melita  he  found  the 
father  of  its  chief  citizen  sick  with  fever  and 
dysentery.  The  record  tells  us  that  Paul  “  entered 
in  and  prayed  and  laid  his  hands  on  him  and  healed 
him.” 

(2)  But  having  thus  seen  something  of  his  habit 
of  prayer  in  his  daily  living  let  us  consider  his 


164 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


habit  of  thought  about  prayer  as  reflected  in  his 
letters  in  which  he  envelopes  his  friends  in  the  at¬ 
mosphere  of  prayer.  In  Philippians  1:3~4  he 
says:  “  I  thank  my  God  for  every  remembrance  of 
you,  always  in  every  prayer  of  mine,  for  you  all 
making  request  with  joy.”  It  must  have  been  a 
joy  to  these  Philippian  brethren  to  know  that  this 
good  man  prayed  for  them  every  time  he  thought 
of  them.  In  this  statement  concerning  himself 
Paul  incidentally  and  unconsciously  revealed  him¬ 
self  as  one  whose  very  thinking  is  in  the  language 
of  prayer.  We  find  him  also  praying  ceaselessly 
for  the  growth  and  usefulness  of  his  friends.  To 
the  Colossians  (1:  9-12)  he  reveals  the  habit  of 
his  thinking  when  he  says:  “  For  this  cause  we  also, 
since  the  day  we  heard  it,  do  not  cease  to  pray  and 
make  request  for  you,  that  ye  may  be  filled  with 
the  knowledge  of  his  will  in  all  spiritual  wisdom 
and  understanding,  to  walk  worthily  of  the  Lord 
unto  all  pleasing,  bearing  fruit  in  every  good  work, 
and  increasing  in  the  knowledge  of  God ;  strength¬ 
ened  with  all  power,  according  to  the  might  of  his 
glory,  unto  all  patience  and  longsuffering  with 
joy;  giving  thanks  unto  the  Father,  who  made  us 
meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance  of  the 
saints  in  light.” 

Again  we  find  him  unconsciously  revealing  his 
prayer  habit  in  thanking  God  for  the  fine  spirit  and 
good  work  of  his  friends.  In  1  Thessalonians 
1:  2-3  he  says:  “We  give  thanks  to  God  always 


SOME  QUALIFICATIONS 


165 


for  you  all,  making  mention  of  you  in  our  prayers; 
remembering  without  ceasing  your  work  of  faith 
and  labour  of  love  and  patience  of  hope  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  before  our  God  and  Father/' 

Without  a  word  of  apology  or  a  shadow  of  res¬ 
ervation  he  confidently  attributes  his  recovery 
from  an  apparently  fatal  illness  to  the  prayers  of 
his  brethren.  In  2  Corinthians  1:  9-11  he  writes: 
‘‘  For  we  would  not  have  you  ignorant,  brethren, 
concerning  our  affliction  which  befell  us  in  Asia, 
that  we  were  weighed  down  exceedingly,  beyond 
our  power,  insomuch  that  we  despaired  even  of 
life:  yea,  we  ourselves  have  had  the  sentence  of 
death  within  ourselves,  that  we  should  not  trust  in 
ourselves,  but  in  God  who  raiseth  the  dead:  who 
delivered  us  out  of  so  great  a  death,  and  will  de¬ 
liver:  on  whom  we  have  set  our  hope  that  he  will 
also  still  deliver  us;  ye  will  also  helping  together 
on  our  behalf  by  your  supplication;  that  for  the 
gift  bestowed  upon  us  by  means  of  many,  thanks 
may  be  given  by  many  persons  on  our  behalf." 

With  the  unquestioning  simplicity  of  a  child  he 
credits  his  deliverance  from  persecutions  to  the 
prayers  of  the  good  Philippian  Church.  Philip- 
pians  1 :  15-19 :  “  Some  indeed  preach  Christ  even 
of  envy  and  strife;  and  some  also  of  good  will: 
the  one  do  it  of  love,  knowing  that  I  am  set  for 
the  defence  of  the  Gospel ;  but  the  other  proclaim 
Christ  of  faction,  not  sincerely,  thinking  to  raise 
up  affliction  for  me  in  my  bonds.  What  then? 


166 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


only  that  in  every  way,  whether  in  pretence  or  in 
truth,  Christ  is  proclaimed;  and  therein  I  rejoice, 
yea,  and  will  rejoice.  For  I  know  that  this  shall 
turn  out  to  my  salvation,  through  your  supplica¬ 
tion  and  the  supply  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.” 

He  predicates  the  opening  of  doors  of  useful¬ 
ness  and  the  power  to  preach  successfully  upon  the 
prayers  of  God’s  people.  In  Colossians  4:  3-4  he 
exhorts:  Continue  stedfastly  in  prayer,  watch¬ 

ing  therein  with  thanksgiving;  withal  praying  for 
us  also,  that  God  may  open  unto  us  a  door  for  the 
word,  to  speak  the  mystery  of  Christ,  for  which  I 
am  also  in  bonds;  that  I  may  make  it  manifest,  as 
I  ought  to  speak.” 

He  shows  his  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  a  prayer 
covenant  when  he  prays  for  a  church  and  begs 
the  church  to  pray  for  him.  He  writes  in  1  Thes- 
salonians  5:  23-35:  ‘‘And  the  God  of  peace  him¬ 
self  sanctify  you  wholly;  and  may  your  spirit  and 
soul  and  body  be  preserved  entire,  without  blame 
at  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Faithful 
is  he  that  calleth  you,  who  will  also  do  it.  Brethren, 
pray  for  us.” 

To  him  praying  for  God’s  blessing  upon  his 
brethren  is  an  exercise  so  real  and  intense  that  it  is 
like  the  anguish  of  a  mother  in  travail.  In  Gala¬ 
tians  4:  19  he  says:  “My  little  children  of  whom 
I  am  again  in  travail  until  Christ  be  found  in  you.” 

The  young  preacher  in  his  many  burdens  and 
perplexities  was  not  forgotten.  He  also  came  in 


SOME  QUALIFICATIONS 


167 


for  his  share  of  this  mighty  man’s  intercession. 
We  find  him  writing  to  Timothy:  “  How  unceasing 
is  my  remembrance  of  thee  in  my  supplications 
night  and  day !  ” 

These  illustrations  taken  almost  at  random  will 
be  sufficient  to  show  the  preeminent  place  Paul 
gave  to  prayer.  He  puts  prayer  at  the  top  when 
he  declares  to  Timothy  that  every  creation  of  God 
is  sanctified  by  prayer. 

If  this  extraordinary  preacher,  this  preacher  of 
such  unusual  natural  gifts  and  such  wide  cultural 
equipment  made  so  much  of  prayer  and  counted  it 
a  thing  so  vital  in  his  ministry,  how  foolish,  how 
blind  is  the  man  who  writes  these  lines  or  the  man 
who  reads  them  if  we  vainly  seek  to  prosecute  our 
ministry  without  it. 

Whatever  else  we  do  God  help  us  to  pray. 
Whatever  else  we  may  fail  to  do,  God  forbid  that 
we  shall  fail  to  pray.  With  our  hearts  turning  to 
those  to  whom  the  Lord  has  sent  us  to  minister — 
let  us  say  with  Samuel  of  old,  ‘‘  Moreover  as  for 
me,  far  be  it  from  me  that  I  should  sin  against 
Jehovah  in  ceasing  to  pray  for  you.” 


IX 


SOME  MODERN  DEMANDS  OF  THE 

OFFICE 

Be  instant  in  season,  out  of  season/^ 

— 2  Timothy  4:  2. 

The  divine  authority  for  this  office,  the 
direct  call  into  it  and  the  general,  basic 
duties  of  it  have  not  changed  and  will 
never  change.  But  while  the  constitutional  basis 
and  the  generic  duties  have  always  been  the  same, 
certain  specific  tasks  have  arisen  in  response  to  the 
demand  of  an  ever-changing  social  mind.  There 
were  things  that  the  pastor  was  obligated  to  do  a 
century  ago  that  he  need  not  do  now.  And  there 
are  things  that  he  was  in  no  sense  obligated  to  do 
or  expected  to  do  a  century  ago  that  he  must  do 
now.  The  republican  form  of  government  con¬ 
stitutionally  guaranteed  to  the  United  States  has 
never  been  changed,  but  the  duties  of  George 
Washington  and  Woodrow  Wilson  as  Presidents 
under  that  Constitution,  while  identical  in  prin¬ 
ciple,  are  very  different  in  detail.  Just  so  pastoral 
duties  of  to-day,  while  the  same  in  principle,  are 
very  different  in  detail  from  those  of  yesterday. 
Washington’s  problems,  while  not  as  manifold  nor 
as  universal,  were  as  difficult,  as  grave  and  as  far- 

i68 


SOME  MODEEN  DEMANDS 


169 


reaching  as  Wilson’s.  We  should  be  foolish  to 
despise  Washington  because  he  never  saw  a  train 
nor  any  of  the  inventions  between  a  train  and  an 
aeroplane.  But  we  should  be  more  foolish  if  we 
demanded  that  Wilson  should  abandon  his  tele¬ 
phone  and  electric  lights  in  order  to  be  a  president 
just  like  Washington.  In  this  mechanical  effort 
to  make  them  alike  we  make  them  unlike.  The 
only  way  Wilson  can  be  like  Washington  is  not  to 
do  the  things  that  Washington  did  in  the  way  he 
did  them.  They  are  each  to  approach  his  office 
and  its  duties  in  the  same  high  altruistic  patriotic 
spirit,  but  in  very  different  ways.  The  quality  of 
the  Latin  proverb  “  The  times  change  and  we 
change  with  them  ”  will  depend  upon  the  type  of 
man  using  it.  The  pessimist  contends  that  if  the 
preacher  changes  with  the  times  he  is  forsaking 
the  old  paths  and  denying  the  old-time  religion. 
The  optimist  will  contend  that  if  the  preacher  does 
not  change  with  the  times  he  must  walk  to  his  ap¬ 
pointments  or  ride  a  donkey.  The  controversy, 
like  most  controversies,  grows  out  of  the  fact  that 
the  men  are  using  the  same  terms  to  express  dif¬ 
ferent  ideas.  The  pessimist  is  talking  about  basic, 
fundamental,  constitutional  principles  and  is  right 
when  he  maintains  that  the  preacher  who  changes 
these  or  his  attitude  to  them  does  it  at  his  peril. 
The  optimist  is  talking  about  the  application  of 
these  principles  to  practical  life  and  is  right  in 
claiming  that  each  new  generation  may  and  should 


170 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


require  a  change  in  the  application  of  unchanging 
principles. 

New  twentieth  century  conditions  are  making 
new  demands  upon  pastoral  efficiency.  The  pastor 
who  shuts  his  eyes  to  these  modern  demands  or 
who  fails  to  equip  himself  to  meet  them  will  soon 
find  himself  as  much  a  misfit  as  a  square  peg  in  a 
round  hole.  Colleges  and  seminaries  that  fail  to 
recognize  these  new  demands  and  equip  men  for 
them  will  be  speedily  and  automatically  and  merci¬ 
lessly  relegated  to  the  scrap-heap  of  innocuous 
desuetude.  And  the  preacher  who  despises  these 
new  demands  is  headed  for  the  same  goal.  What 
are  some  of  the  imperious  demands  that  modern 
atmospheres  are  making  upon  the  preacher? 

I.  The  preacher  shall  exercise  a  controlling  in¬ 
fluence  in  the  modern  religious  education  move¬ 
ment.  Religious  education  in  the  public  schools  is 
impracticable.  There  is  a  tragic  neglect  of  it  and 
a  consequent  pitiable  lack  of  qualification  for  it  in 
the  home.  The  Sunday  school  is  seeking  to  supple¬ 
ment  this  lack  but  in  most  cases  its  inefficiency  is 
pathetic.  Meantime  thoughtful  men  in  our 
churches  are  awakening  to  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
new  science  of  education.  Even  the  children  con¬ 
trast  the  efficient  public  school  with  the  slipshod 
Sunday  school.  This  consciousness  of  the  ineffi¬ 
ciency  of  the  modern  Sunday  school  and  its  failure 
to  meet  the  ideals  of  modern  education  gave  birth 
to  the  contemptuous  conundrum  “  When  is  a  school 


SOME  MODERN  DEMANDS 


171 


not  a  school? — When  it  is  a  Sunday  school.’’  For 
two  decades,  however,  there  has  been  in  the  at¬ 
mosphere  a  growing  demand  that  our  Sunday 
schools  and  our  church  life  generally  shall  feel  the 
beneficent  influence  of  this  new  educational  science. 
Out  of  this  effort  to  apply  to  religious  instruction 
the  modern  scientific  educational  principles  has 
leaped  the  new  Minerva — Religious  Education. 
Universities  and  Theological  Seminaries  are  pay¬ 
ing  homage  at  this  shrine.  The  leading  institu¬ 
tions  have  permanently  established  and  fully 
equipped  Departments  of  Religious  Education. 
The  presses  are  groaning  with  books  and  the  maga¬ 
zines  teeming  with  articles  on  the  subject.  The 
Religious  Education  Association  has  been  organ¬ 
ized  with  its  large  annual  gatherings,  its  paid  sec¬ 
retary  and  its  wide  propaganda  through  books  and 
periodicals. 

All  of  this  means  that  the  church  has  come  upon 
a  new  day  in  the  manner  of  getting  her  God-given 
old-time  message  out  to  the  people.  It  means  that 
the  preacher  while  proclaiming  the  same  old  gospel 
story  must  remodel  some  of  his  methods  if  he  is 
to  take  a  worthy  part  in  the  activities  of  that  new 
day.  The  day  is  gone  when  by  an  emotional  or 
an  eloquent  sermon  the  preacher  has  discharged 
his  obligations  in  the  matter  of  public  ministra¬ 
tions  in  the  house  of  God.  The  preacher  who  is 
to  do  his  best  in  this  generation  must  know  the 
principles  of  modern  pedagogy.  He  must  be 


172 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


qualified  to  train  and  organize  a  teaching  force  in 
his  church.  He  must  he  familiar  with  the  scientific 
principle  underlying  education.  He  must  be  as 
much  at  home  in  this  sphere  as  is  the  superinten-- 
dent  of  the  public  schools  in  the  community.  His 
knozvledge  here  must  be  so  thorough  and  accurate 
that  he  shall  be  able  to  project  his  ideals  into 
others  who  shall  become  his  capable  helpers  in  the 
great  teaching  business  of  the  church. 

The  preacher  who  can  enter  the  average  Sunday 
school  without  a  shudder,  on  account  of  its  utter 
lack  of  efficiency,  either  has  not  a  sensitive  nature 
or  is  ignorant  of  the  true  science  of  education.  It 
is  easy  for  the  superficial  ease-loving  preacher  to 
shrug  his  shoulder  and  say  that  this  is  all  a  new¬ 
fangled  business  and  that  the  old-fashioned  way 
is  good  enough  for  him,  and  imagine  that  in  say¬ 
ing  it  he  is  both  pious  and  orthodox. 

And  that  leads  me  to  say  that  if  we  are  to  pre¬ 
serve  the  precious  heritage  of  old-time  orthodoxy 
the  modern  orthodox  preacher  must  make  himself 
the  master  of  the  new  education  as  applied  to  re¬ 
ligion.  What  is  the  danger  of  this  new  movement 
called  religious  education?  The  tendency  to  sub¬ 
stitute  culture  for  Christ — training  for  regenera¬ 
tion.  One  of  its  leading  exponents  said  in  a  recent 
book  “  the  best  redemption  is  prevention.’’  That 
sounds  nice  but  it  is  not  true.  Now  what  are  we 
theological  conservatives  and  orthodox  religion¬ 
ists  to  do  about  this  new  scientific  education  move- 


SOME  MODEEN  DEMANDS 


173 


ment  and  its  application  to  the  religious  side  of 
man's  life?  We  can  ignore  it  and  laugh  at  it  and 
sniff  at  it  and  fuss  at  it  and  storm  at  it,  while  the 
radicals  take  it  over  into  their  camp  and  by  it 
spread  the  heresy  of  salvation  by  character,  re¬ 
demption  by  prevention,  eternal  life  by  develop¬ 
ment,  etc.,  etc.  Or  we  can  load  this  new  scientific 
education  wagon  with  our  orthodox  wares  and 
make  it  deliver  the  goods  for  us.  Many  of  our 
preachers  and  Sunday-school  teachers  do  not  know 
the  meaning  of  the  word  pedagogy  or  psychology 
and  most  of  them  never  read  a  book  on  either  sub¬ 
ject.  This  is  far  from  implying  that  they  can  do 
no  good  as  teachers  and  preachers.  It  simply 
means  that  they  cannot  do  their  best.  Ignorance 
of  modern  pedagogy  and  psychology  does  not  dis¬ 
qualify  the  preacher  or  teacher  but  it  does  greatly 
discount  him.  This  new  religious  education  is  not 
a  doctrine  but  a  method  of  conveying  a  doctrine. 
Shipment  of  the  Bible  on  an  ox  wagon  or  an 
express  train  does  not  affect  its  doctrines.  These 
are  methods  of  distributing  the  Bible.  So  the  new 
Religious  Education  is  not  a  doctrine  but  a  method, 
and  I  think  an  improved  method,  of  conveying 
ideas.  My  concern  is  that  we  shall  use  it  as  a 
means  of  conveying  and  impressing  truth  and  not 
turn  it  over  to  theological  highbrows  as  a  vehicle 
of  false  doctrine.  It  is  encouraging  to  notice  the 
increasing  attention  being  given  to  this  subject  by 
leaders  in  the  various  denominations.  Practically 


174 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


all  of  them  are  sending  out  specially  prepared  men 
to  train  Sunday-school  workers.  Every  Methodist 
presiding  elder  is  urged  “  to  make  himself  familiar 
with  the  modern  Sunday  school  and  so  be  able  to 
inspire  his  pastors.”  The  presidents  of  both  our 
Theological  Seminaries  showed  their  customary 
alertness  to  the  demands  of  a  situation  when  they 
arranged  for  a  chair  of  Religious  Pedagogy  and  a 
well-equipped  man  to  hold  Sunday-school  training 
institutes  in  connection  with  evangelistic  meetings. 
A  revival  atmosphere  where  souls  are  being  saved, 
and  where  the  conscience  of  the  church  is  aroused 
is  a  hopeful  field  for  religious  education.  Such 
evangelism  will  give  no  room  for  the  complaint 
that  evangelists  arouse  but  do  not  develop  a  church. 
Religious  education  is  beginning  to  bulk  large  in 
the  program  of  our  churches.  Dr.  Frederick 
Lynch  is  right  in  saying  “  Soon  the  church  is  go¬ 
ing  to  take  much  of  the  money  it  is  now  spending 
on  quartette  choirs  and  other  things  and  put  it 
where  it  will  do  infinitely  more  good  for  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God — on  the  thorough  religious  education 
of  its  children/^ 

All  this  leads  to  the  inevitable  conclusion  that 
the  twentieth  century  pastorate  demands  that  its 
incumbent  shall  be  familiar  with  the  principles  of 
modern  scientific  education  and  shall  know  how  to 
use  them. 

II.  Another  modern  condition  that  makes  spe¬ 
cial  demand  tipon  the  skill  of  the  preacher  is  the 


SOME  MODEKN  DEMANDS 


175 


widespread  interest  in  the  doctrine  of  financial  stezih 
ardship.  Whether  one  holds  to  the  pessimistic  the¬ 
ory  of  the  world's  degeneration  or  to  the  optimistic 
theory  of  its  upward  evolution,  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  religion  is  eliciting  more  and  larger  financial 
gifts  than  ever  in  history.  It  is  also  true  that  the 
church  on  account  of  its  multitudinous  activities  is 
requiring  more  money  than  ever  before.  It  fol¬ 
lows  inevitably  that  the  rnodern  pastor,  more  than 
any  of  his  predecessors,  faces  the  problem  of  se¬ 
curing  and  directing  money  for  kingdom  use. 
Pastors,  particularly  in  the  larger  churches,  are 
lamenting  the  fact  that  they  are  about  to  degenerate 
into  financial  agents  and  business  managers.  Rais¬ 
ing  money  for  religious  purposes  is  a  noble  under¬ 
taking,  but  many  of  our  best  preachers  are  con¬ 
sciously  handicapped  by  it.  Local  requirements 
and  outside  denominational  demands  are  such  that 
the  pastor  is  hardly  out  of  one  strenuous  drive  be¬ 
fore  he  must  enter  another.  Every  true  pastor 
wants  to  do  right  by  every  worthy  cause  and  yet 
every  true  pastor  has  felt  that  the  frequent  repeti¬ 
tion  of  high  pressure  campaigns  for  money  makes 
against  normal,  sustained  growth  in  the  grace  of 
liberality  and  incidentally  hinders  growth  along 
other  lines.  Nearly  every  conscientious  pastor  has 
felt  that  there  must  be  some  way  of  raising  money 
for  kingdom  enterprises  better  than  the  one  he  is 
using,  or  has  ever  used.  He  has  used  the  public 
appeal  method  and  has  been  humiliated  with  the 


176 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


uncertainty  of  its  results  and  the  large  per  cent, 
of  members  not  reached  by  it.  He  has  tried  the 
budget  plan  with  systematic  weekly  contributions 
and  no  public  collections  and  is  chagrined  to  find 
that  it  tends  to  degenerate  to  a  pitiful  minimum 
for  the  lack  of  enthusiasm.  Thoughtful  men  are 
searching  for  the  method  by  which  the  business 
idea  of  the  systematic  plan  and  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  hilarious  public  collection  may  be  combined. 
The  modern  pastor's  preacher  grandfather  knew 
nothing  of  the  complex  financial  problems  con¬ 
fronting  a  twentieth  century  church.  These  new 
conditions  in  the  church  make  a  demand  on  the 
preacher  for  efficiency  and  patience  not  dreamed  of 
fifty  years  ago. 

III.  Another  demand  that  the  twentieth  cen¬ 
tury  is  making  upon  the  preacher  is  the  evident 
necessity  for  readjustment  of  our  missionary 
methods.  Besides  the  necessity  of  a  new  financial 
method  implied  in  the  preceding  paragraph  there 
has  arisen  under  modern  conditions  the  necessity 
of  changing  our  plan  of  securing  recruits  for  our 
foreign  mission  fields.  The  accepted  method  has 
been  to  practically  limit  foreign  mission  recruits  to 
those  who  volunteer  for  such  service.  Under 
former  conditions  when  the  dangers  and  hardships 
on  foreign  fields  limited  applicants  for  this  work 
to  the  most  heroic  and  consecrated  this  plan  worked 
reasonably  well.  But  conditions  have  changed. 
Barring  complications  that  have  arisen  temporarily 


SOME  MODEEN  DEMANDS 


177 


on  account  of  the  recent  world  war,  the  dangers 
and  hardships  of  the  foreign  missionary  do  not 
surpass  and  often  do  not  equal  those  of  the  frontier 
missionary  and  many  an  obscure  pastor  at  home. 
The  result  is  that  volunteering  for  a  foreign  field 
does  not  imply  necessarily  unusual  heroism  or  con¬ 
secration. 

Securing  men  for  our  constantly  enlarging  for¬ 
eign  mission  program  is  an  ever  present  and  al¬ 
ways  pressing  question,  but  coordinate  with  it,  if 
not  superior  to  it,  is  the  other  question  of  getting 
the  right  sort  of  men. 

No  man  surpasses  me  in  affectionate  admiration 
for  those  groups  of  young  people  volunteering 
every  year  to  become  foreign  missionaries.  Their 
joyful  consecration  to  the  work  is  beautiful.  He 
would  be  a  cynic  indeed  who  could  entertain  to¬ 
ward  them  a  critical  spirit  or  speak  a  word  or  as¬ 
sume  an  attitude  that  would  chill  their  youthful 
ardour.  Because  it  is  so  apt  to  be  misunderstood, 
I  hesitate  to  give  utterance  to  a  conviction  that  has 
been  growing  on  me  for  some  time.  Because  of 
the  delicacy  of  the  matter  I  shall  make  no  dog¬ 
matic  affirmation  but  will  content  myself  by  ask¬ 
ing  my  brethren  to  consider  with  me  our  methods 
of  gaining  recruits  for  foreign  fields,  that  we  may 
help  each  other  in  reaching  conclusions  as  to  the 
soundness  of  some  of  them. 

Am  I  wrong  in  mentioning  as  a  possible  objec¬ 
tion  to  our  method  of  recruiting  our  foreign  force 


178 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


the  fact  that  hitherto  our  Boards  have  in  the  choice 
of  missionaries  seemed  to  regard  themselves  as  be¬ 
ing  practically  shut  up  to  the  comparatively  small 
circle  of  volunteers?  If  the  Boards  feel  the  need 
of  a  man  to  open,  for  example,  a  new  field  in  China 
why  should  they  feel  themselves  bound  to  select  a 
volunteer?  Why  should  they  not  look  for  a  man 

perhaps  better  qualified  for  this  particular  field 

\ 

than  any  who  have  volunteered?  Having  found 
him,  why  should  they  not  take  it  up  with  him  in¬ 
dependently  of  the  volunteer  question?  That  is 
the  way  we  get  our  workers  on  the  home  field. 
Whether  it  is  a  vacant  pastorate,  or  a  vacant  secre¬ 
taryship,  or  a  vacant  mission  field,  we  do  not  wait 
for  men  to  volunteer  for  it  or  urge  men  to  volun¬ 
teer  for  it  and  then  confine  ourselves  to  that  list 
in  filling  the  place.  The  approved  methods  of  fill¬ 
ing  vacancies  in  undertaking  a  new  work  here  at 
home  is  to  prayerfully  consider  the  field  and  the 
kind  of  man  it  needs  and  then  search  the  earth  for 
that  man.  When  he  is  finally  located  he  has  per¬ 
haps  never  thought  of  the  place  in  question,  hut  we 
lay  the  burden  on  him  and  undertake  to  convince 
him  that  he  is  the  man  for  the  place. 

Am  I  not  right  in  my  feeling  that  if  the  Foreign 
Mission  Board  will  adopt  this  policy  of  selecting 
its  recruits  it  will  secure  stronger  and  better  men. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  it  seems  to  me  fitting  that 
the  office  should  seek  the  man  and  not  the  man  the 
office. 


SOME  MODERN  DEMANDS 


179 


My  contention  is  that  zue  ought  to  prepare  an 
atmosphere  that  zvill  make  our  Boards  free  to  re¬ 
gard  any  Christian  and  especially  any  preacher  as 
a  volunteer  to  the  foreign  field  provided  it  can  he 
made  plain  to  him  that  such  service  on  his  part  is 
in  accordance  zvith  the  zjeill  of  God,  For  a 
preacher  to  assume  any  other  attitude  would,  as  I 
see  it,  make  him  a  spiritual  pervert.  This  does  not 
mean  that  the  Boards  should  discount  the  volun¬ 
teer  in  selecting  missionaries,  but  that  there  should 
be  a  greater  liberty  in  choosing  outside  this  noble 
band  when  it  seems  best. 

When  President  Wilson  announced  his  uni¬ 
versal  service  and  selective  draft  ’’  theory  of  re¬ 
cruiting  our  army  for  the  world  war,  it  was  met 
with  a  widespread,  almost  universal  protest 
throughout  the  country.  Our  people  had  been  ac¬ 
customed  to  the  volunteer  method  of  securing  sol¬ 
diers.  Mr.  Wilson’s  plan  was  denounced  as  a 
“  conscript  ”  method.  The  distinguished  speaker 
of  the  house  left  the  chair  to  deliver  his  soul 
against  it  in  a  perfervid  speech.  Congress  and  the 
country  at  large  were  evidently  overwhelmingly 
against  Mr.  Wilson’s  idea.  But  when  the  people 
had  time  for  serious  discussion  and  mature  reflec¬ 
tion  they  came  to  see  almost  unanimously  that 
universal  service  ”  is  the  only  patriotic  concep¬ 
tion  of  citizenship  and  a  “  selective  draft  ”  the 
only  sensible  method  of  recruiting  an  effective  and 
victorious  army. 


180 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


If  it  is  right  to  abandon  the  antiquated  volun¬ 
teer  method  of  recruiting  our  army  why  not 
abandon  it  as  a  method  of  recruiting  our  mission¬ 
ary  forces?  The  logic  of  salvation  requires  that 
every  saved  man  shall  hold  himself  ready  to  do 
anything  or  go  anywhere  in  obedience  to  the  will 
of  God.  If  after  prayerful  deliberation  a  group 
of  godly  men  select  one  of  their  number  as  one 
specially  qualified  to  do  a  specific  work  they  will 
have  no  power  to  make  him  undertake  it.  And  if 
he  is  the  right  sort  of  man  he  will  not  undertake 
it  without  a  personal  conviction  that  it  is  the  will  of 
God,  but  the  very  fact  of  their  turning  to  him  will 
constrain,  almost  compel  him.  Vox  Populi;  Vox 
Dei  is  a  proverb  more  striking  than  true,  but  it  is 
true  that  the  voice  of  the  people  often  makes  audi¬ 
ble  the  voice  of  God  and  interprets  His  will.  Be¬ 
sides  if  it  is  objected  that  Mission  Boards  have 
no  authority  to  require  men  to  go  as  missionaries 
the  answer  is,  neither  have  churches  the  authority 
to  require  men  to  become  their  pastors,  but  pastor¬ 
ates  are  recruited  by  the  selective  and  not  the  vol¬ 
unteer  method. 

V  It  was  a  favourite  saying  with  Dr.  Carroll  that 
the  preacher  should  have  both  a  perpendicular  and 
a  horizontal  call,  meaning  by  that  that  he  should 
both  be  called  of  God  and  called  of  man.  The  hori¬ 
zontal  call  to  a  specific  task  to  be  performed  by 
the  preacher  has  often  made  plain  the  hitherto 
unrecognized  perpendicular  call.  In  many  cases  a 


SOME  MODEEN  DEMANDS 


181 


strong,  well-qualified  man,  who  feels  a  delicacy  in 
applying  for  an  appointment  as  a  foreign  mission¬ 
ary  would  recognize  the  duty  of  going  if  a  specific 
field  were  open  to  him  and  he  urged  to  go  in  and 
occupy  it. 

Recently  a  brilliant  theological  professor  said  if 
he  could  call  back  twenty  years  he  would  be  teach¬ 
ing  theology  in  China  instead  of  America.  His 
unusual  gifts  as  a  teacher  were  recognized  by  a 
Seminary  in  this  country  about  ten  years  ago.  He 
was  offered  a  position  in  that  school  and  accepted 
it.  If  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  unhampered  by 
the  volunteer  list  had  selected  its  men  as  a  Semi¬ 
nary  Board  did,  because  of  recognized  gifts,  and 
had  said  to  him:  ‘‘We  want  you  to  teach  in  a 
Seminary  in  China,’’  he  would  doubtless  be  in 
China  now  instead  of  America. 

I  recently  heard  the  secretary  of  one  of  our 
Foreign  Boards  tell  the  appalling  story  of  the  large 
number  of  men  and  women  who  have  been  brought 
home  from  foreign  fields  temporarily  or  perma¬ 
nently  because  they  were  physically  unable  to  cope 
with  their  tasks.  Much  of  this  is  doubtless  due, 
as  the  beloved  secretary  intimated,  to  the  fact  that 
many  of  our  missionaries  are  overtasked  and  there¬ 
fore  overtaxed.  But  I  am  wondering  if  much  of 
this  overtasking  and  consequent  overtaxing  is  not 
due  to  the  fact  that  on  account  of  our  being  limited 
to  a  small  coterie  of  noble  volunteers  as  a  basis  of 
selection  we  have  not  always  been  able  to  find  men 


182 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


and  women  with  the  necessary  physical  and  mental 
qualifications  for  this  work. 

But  it  is  objected  that  after  a  man  has  demon¬ 
strated  special  gifts  at  home  it  would  be  unfair  to 
ask  him  to  give  up  the  salary  he  could  command 
here  at  home  for  the  salary  he  would  receive  as  a 
foreign  missionary.  My  answer  is  twofold;  (1) 
If  the  day  has  come  in  any  of  our  work  when 
missionaries  are  moved  to  go  or  stay  by  the  salary 
test,  we  had  better  reform  conditions  or  go  out  of 
business  altogether.  (2)  If  for  any  reason  a 
given  man  ought  to  have  a  larger  salary  than  some 
other  man — then  give  it  to  him.  I  see  no  reason 
for  a  dead  level  in  the  salary  question  on  the  for¬ 
eign  field  that  would  not  require,  with  equal  im¬ 
periousness,  a  dead  level  of  salaries  on  the  home 
field. 

IV.  But  the  twentieth  century  has  raised  still 
another  problem  that  challenges  the  wisdom  and 
grace  of  the  modern  preacher.  1  refer  to  the  prob¬ 
lem  of  delivering  Christendom  from  the  multiplic¬ 
ity  of  religious  denominations. 

Within  the  past  few  years  there  has  developed 
both  at  home  and  on  foreign  fields  marked  dis¬ 
satisfaction  with  these  divisions  and  a  growing  de¬ 
mand  for  their  removal.  Our  foreign  mission¬ 
aries  tell  us  that  it  is  impossible  to  explain  to  the 
heathen  why  there  should  be  several  brands  of 
Christianity  in  the  same  community.  The  situa¬ 
tion  at  home  is,  if  possible,  more  embarrassing. 


SOME  MODERN  DEMANDS 


183 


Travel  where  you  will,  in  practically  every  little 
town  you  pass  you  will  see  from  two  to  half  a 
dozen  church  steeples,  grim  evidence  of  as  many 
religious  denominations,  each  occupying  a  semi¬ 
belligerent  attitude  to  all  the  others.  Often  these 
little  organizations  are  hotbeds  of  envy,  prejudice 
and  strife.  Usually  they  do  not  help  each  other 
but  positively  hinder  each  other — often  uninten¬ 
tionally,  but  many  times  deliberately  and  design¬ 
edly.  On  this  matter  of  the  shameful  and  inex¬ 
cusable  multiplicity  of  denominations  let  me  show 
you  a  few  samples. 

Example  i.  Take  a  certain  train  out  of  Dallas, 
Texas,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  you  will  come  to 
a  little  town  of  800  inhabitants  in  which  there  are, 
or  were  at  last  report,  twelve  church  organizations. 
It  is  mortifying  that  I  am  forced  to  confess  that 
half  of  these  are  Baptist  churches — three  for  white 
people  and  three  for  negroes.  I  think  there  is  a 
good  reason  why  there  should  be  a  separate  church 
for  coloured  people,  but  no  man  will  ever  be  able 
to  give  a  satisfactory  reason  why  there  should  be 
three  Baptist  churches  for  white  people  and  three 
for  negroes  in  that  village.  Nor  do  I  believe  that 
any  man  will  ever  give  a  reason  satisfactory  to 
God  for  the  existence  of  six  other  white  denomi¬ 
nations  in  that  town. 

Example  2.  Take  a  certain  train  out  of  Fort 
Worth,  Texas,  and  in  about  half  an  hour  you  will 
come  to  a  little  village  of  TOO  people.  In  this 


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THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


village,  where  there  is  room  enough  for  one  church, 
or  two  at  the  most,  there  are  seven  church  organi¬ 
zations — six  of  them  having  their  own  houses  of 
worship.  In  this  village  the  Presbyterians  have 
two,  the  Methodists  one,  the  Disciples  two,  the 
Catholics  one  and  the  Baptists  one.  Within  five 
miles  of  this  village  there  are  four  other  little 
Baptist  churches  barely  able  to  “  keep  house.” 
Will  any  honest  wise  man  claim  that  such  a  con¬ 
fusion  of  tongues  can  be  pleasing  to  Him  who 
prayed  that  His  people  might  be  one  ? 

Example  j.  In  Central  Texas  there  is  a  small 
city  of  some  10,000  people.  In  a  certain  section 
of  that  little  city  there  are  within  a  radius  of  two 
blocks  twelve  church  organizations,  a  Jewish  syna¬ 
gogue  and  a  $75,000.00  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building. 
Each  church  has  its  property  costing  from 
$12,000.00  to  $50,000.00.  Of  these  denominations 
four  are  Presbyterian,  two  Methodist,  two  Disci¬ 
ple,  one  Catholic,  one  Episcopalian  and  one  Bap¬ 
tist,  and  one  Church  of  Christ  Science. 

Now  these  are  not  exaggerated  nor  extreme 
cases.  They  are  fair  average  samples  of  the  waste 
of  religious  forces  by  which  we  are  causing  Israel 
to  sin.  In  many  communities  little  organizations 
called  churches  by  courtesy  are  so  thick  that  they 
are  in  each  other’s  way,  treading  on  each  other’s 
toes,  often  spitting  and  quarrelling  and  clawing  at 
each  other  like  cats  in  a  basket.  The  man  who 
can  look  this  thing  squarely  in  the  face  and  not 


SOME  MODEEN  DEMANDS 


185 


grow  sick  at  heart  is  either  a  fatalist  in  his 
philosophy  or  a  pachyderm  in  his  sensibilities. 

There  is  just  one  reason  why  we  are  not  going 
to  evangelize  the  world  in  this  generation  and  that 
is  that  we  are  confused  and  perplexed  and  be¬ 
wildered  and  dehearted  by  our  petty  divisions  at 
home.  If  the  money  and  energy  and  thought  and 
vital  force  worse  than  wasted  in  maintaining  un¬ 
necessary  and  hindering  denominational  organiza¬ 
tions  at  home  could  be  expended  on  the  foreign 
fields  it  would  constitute  a  force  far  larger  than  all 
the  present  foreign  mission  work  of  Christendom 
combined. 

The  distinct  sphere  in  which  this  state  of  af¬ 
fairs  affects  the  preacher  in  his  work  is  in  its  limi¬ 
tation  of  his  influence.  If  he  has  the  shepherd 
heart  he  longs  to  help  everybody.  But  because  of 
little  sectarian  prejudices  he  is  practically  cut  off 
from  a  large  majority  of  the  people  in  his  parish. 
Even  in  communities  where  he  is  the  only  preacher 
people  of  other  denominations  will  not  yield  to 
him  their  kindly  teachable  spirit.  Thoughtful  men 
of  all  faiths  are  coming  to  see  quite  clearly  the 
folly  of  this  waste  of  energy  and  resources.  Many 
solutions  have  been  proposed — amalgamation,  fed¬ 
eration,  coordination,  the  so-called  community 
church,  etc.,  as  a  substitute  for  a  genuine  New 
Testament  church.  But  each  has  its  fundamental 
weakness  causing  more  evil  than  it  cures  and  the 
more  thoughtful  have  felt  that  one  must  look  still 


186 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


further  for  our  remedy.  The  people  are  looking 
to  their  preachers  to  find  this  remedy.  The  true 
preacher,  feeling  that  he  has  a  message  from  God 
to  the  people  will  not,  because  he  dare  not,  mutilate 
nor  materially  modify  that  message  as  an  oblation 
on  the  altar  of  denominational  union  however  de¬ 
voutly  he  may  wisli  for  its  consummation.  On 
the  other  hand,  every  sensitive  preacher  suffers  un¬ 
utterable  agony  because  of  the  divided  front  with 
which  Christendom  faces  its  task  of  world  con¬ 
quest.  Personally,  I  see  no  available  solution  for 
it.  The  more  I  study  the  question,  the  more  I  feel 
like  a  little  child  lost  in  a  wilderness.  There  are 
three  things  of  which  I  am  absolutely  sure.  The 
first  is  that  these  petty  denominational  tribes  exist 
in  violation  of  the  spirit  and  will  of  our  Saviour; 
the  second  is  that  they  shamefully  hinder  the 
progress  of  the  kingdom;  and  the  third  is  that  the 
remedies  so  far  proposed  are  superficial  and  there¬ 
fore  inadequate.  My  daily  prayer  is  that  God  will 
raise  up  a  modern  Moses  who  shall  lead  his  people 
out  of  their  bondage  to  out-worn  traditions  from 
which  these  divisions  spring  and  turn  their  hearts 
to  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the 
absolute  lordship  of  Christ  as  the  one  hope  of  cur¬ 
ing  these  man-made  divisions. 

V.  But  there  is  yet  another  nezv  demand  that 
modern  life  is  making  on  the  preacher.  I  refer  to 
the  demand  that  he  shoidd  have  a  part  in  direct¬ 
ing  the  new  rural  social  mind.  The  renaissance  of 


SOME  MODERN  DEMANDS 


187 


rural  life  interests  is  the  most  notable  sociological 
phenomenon  thus  far  witnessed  by  the  twentieth 
century.  Since  the  church  has  been  the  chief  so¬ 
cial  institution  in  rural  life  it  follows  that  the 
preacher  is  the  logical  man  to  lead  in  this  new  line 
of  thinking.  Unless  the  preacher  does  take  a 
worthy  part  in  this  new  rural  movement  the  spiri¬ 
tual  power  of  our  country  churches  will  be  sacri¬ 
ficed  upon  the  altar  of  economic  efficiency  and 
utilitarianism.  The  tragic  feature  of  it  is  that  so 
many  people,  including  many  country  preachers 
themselves,  do  not  know  that  anything  unusual  is 
happening  around  them.  They  are  in  the  midst  of 
an  economic  revolution  and  have  not  the  eyes  to 
see  it. 

A  successful  business  man,  who  left  the  country 
neighbourhood  thirty  years  ago  and  made  a  fortune 
in  the  city,  seeing  the  title  of  Dr.  Bickler’s  book, 

Solving  the  Country  Church  Problem,’^  said: 

There  are  no  country  church  problems,  all  the 
problems  are  in  the  town  churches.’’  He  is  a  type 
of  many  long-range  observers  and  superficial 
thinkers  on  this  subject.  Sentimentalists  have 
idealized  “  The  Little  Brown  Church  in  the  Wild¬ 
wood  ”  till  many  have  supposed  it  to  be  an  elysian 
field  of  peace,  piety  and  spiritual  power.  Many 
who  are  writing  on  country  church  problems  are 
discussing  an  idealized  memory  and  not  a  stub¬ 
born  fact.  They  are  talking  about  the  country 
church  as  they  now  think  it  appeared  to  a  boy 


188 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


thirty  or  forty  years  ago.  They  know  little,  either 
from  experience  or  first  hand  observation,  about 
the  complex  and  perplexing  problems  of  new 
twentieth  century  social,  educational  and  econom¬ 
ical  conditions  with  which  all  our  country  churches 
are  wrestling  and  by  which  many  of  them  are  be¬ 
ing  put  out  of  commission.  Still  thinking  of  it  in 
the  simplicity  of  its  pioneer  life  they  cannot  realize 
the  utter  unpreparedness  of  the  average  country 
church  to  cope  with  its  new  problems.  They  know 
only  in  a  vague  general  way,  if  they  know  at  all, 
that  the  twentieth  century  has  brought  to  the 
country  church  a  new  Sunday-school  problem,  a 
new  meeting-house  problem,  a  new  transportation 
problem,  a  new  social  life  problem,  a  new  coordina¬ 
tion  and  centralization  problem,  a  new  financial 
problem,  a  new  Sabbath  observance  problem,  a 
new  public  school  problem,  a  new  agricultural  prob¬ 
lem,  and  so  on  down  the  line.  Because  blindness 
in  part  hath  happened  to  them  they  think  that  all 
the  country  preacher  needs  to  do  is  to  preach  the 
Gospel  (“gawspelV’  some  of  them  call  it),  make 
himself  agreeable  to  the  people  and  pass  all  these 
problems  up  to  Caesar  for  settlement.  If  the  coun¬ 
try  church  does  not  concern  itself  with  these  ques¬ 
tions  so  vital  to  country  life,  it  will  soon  find  that 
country  life  does  not  concern  itself  with  the  church. 
Good  leadership  is  the  one  essential  human  element 
in  the  solution  of  these  problems.  But  leadership 
is  itself  the  gravest  problem  confronting  the  coun- 


SOME  MODEEN  DEMANDS 


189 


try  church.  Leadership  cannot  solve  other  prob¬ 
lems  so  long  as  it  itself  is  a  problem. 

Let  us  notice  some  of  the  elements  of  weakness 
in  rural  pastoral  leadership.  (1)  Preoccupation; 
usually  the  country  preacher  is  something  besides 
pastor  of  this  particular  church.  Either  he  is 
preaching  to  other  churches,  which  fact  serves  to 
divide  his  time  and  thought  and  heart,  or  he  is  pre¬ 
occupied  with  some  secular  or  semi-secular  voca¬ 
tion  which  he  is  pursuing  to  make  money,  or  per¬ 
haps  to  make  a  living,  which  the  church  has  failed 
to  provide.  Wherever  the  fault  may  lie,  the  fact 
remains  that  the  average  country  pastor  is  so  beset 
with  other  matters  that  he  cannot  obey  the  Scrip¬ 
ture  injunction  to  give  himself  wholly  to  the  min¬ 
istry  of  the  Word  and  prayer.  (2)  Failure  to 
recognize  the  value,  the  importance,  the  dignity  of 
a  country  pastorate.  The  average  country  pastor 
is  a  man  of  genuine  piety,  sincere  purpose,  un¬ 
questioned  doctrinal  orthodoxy  and  notably  sacri¬ 
ficial  life.  The  trouble  with  many,  if  not  most  of 
them,  is  that  they  are  restless  and  dissatisfied  be¬ 
cause  they  have  not  eyes  to  see  the  thrilling  possi¬ 
bilities  of  a  country  pastorate.  The  average 
country  preacher  sees  in  his  pastorate  a  group  of 
commonplace  farmers  and  their  more  commonplace 
children,  not  realizing  that  out  of  these  apparently 
commonplace  groups  are  to  come  ninety  per  cent, 
of  the  men  and  women  who  are  to  be  the  leaders 
in  shaping  the  world’s  thinking  and  activity.  Nor 


190 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


does  he  see  that  more  than  any  man  in  the  world 
the  country  pastor  has  a  chance  to  mould  the  lives 
of  the  young  people  coming  under  his  influence. 
Because  of  its  intensiveness  the  influence  of  a 
country  preacher  with  one  hundred  in  his  church 
is  greater  in  the  matter  of  character  building  than 
that  of  the  town  preacher  with  a  thousand.  The 
country  preacher  may  take  the  clay  in  his  hands 
and  shape  it  while  the  city  preacher  only  touches  it 
here  and  there  with  his  finger.  (3)  Lack  of  train¬ 
ing.  Pastoral  leadership  in  the  country  church  is 
often  sadly  handicapped  because  the  preacher  is 
so  poorly  educated.  An  intelligent  layman  in  a 
strong  country  church  said  to  me  recently:  “I  do 
not  know  what  our  church  is  going  to  do  for  a 
pastor.  It  is  true  we  have  about  twenty  preachers 
in  this  county  who  would  be  glad  to  get  this  church, 

but  we  have  a  nine-months’  ten-grade  public  school 

% 

where  most  of  our  children  graduate  and  many  of 
them  are  sent  off  to  college.  Now,  our  trouble  is 
that  our  young  people  are  better  educated  than 
any  of  these  preachers.  They  are  all  good  men, 
not  a  stain  on  one  of  them,  but  whether  it  ought 
to  be  so  or  not  it  yet  remains  true  that  the  preacher 
cannot  do  much  in  leading  our  young  people  while 
they  regard  him  as  an  inferior  to  themselves  in 
the  matter  of  education.”  This  is  not  the  theoriz¬ 
ing  of  a  theological  professor,  but  the  result  of  the 
pragmatic  test  made  by  a  country  layman.  The 
preacher  must  be  educated  if  he  is  to  be  the  capable 


SOME  MODEKN  DEMANDS 


191 


leader  of  a  free  and  intelligent  people.  Every 
schoolhouse  adds  one  more  argument  for  the 
necessity  of  an  educated  ministry.  Every  patriotic 
man  rejoices  in  the  efforts  the  States  of  the  South 
are  making  in  educational  matters.  By  generous 
appropriations  from  State  treasuries  “  the  little  red 
schoolhouse  ”  is  springing  up  everywhere  and 
State  Universities  for  broad  culture,  and  State 
Colleges  for  specific  professional  training  are  in 
easy  reach  of  the  masses.  Add  to  this  the  many 
private  schools  and  the  multitude  of  denomina¬ 
tional  schools  of  all  grades  and  it  is  easy  to  see 
how  the  general  average  of  intelligence  is  far 
higher  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  The  thought¬ 
ful  man  must  at  once  conclude  that  if  the  preacher 
is  to  fulfill  his  God-appointed  mission  to  this  better 
educated  people  he  must  himself  be  better  educated. 
Dr.  Boyce  was  right  when  he  contended  fifty  years 
ago  for  a  better  educated  ministry,  but  if  there  was 
one  reason  for  it  fifty  years  ago,  there  are  ten  rea¬ 
sons  now.  But  there  is  another  reason  for  training 
among  country  preachers.  I  refer  to  the  change  in 
the  character  of  our  population,  and  especially  our 
country  population.  Fifty  years  ago  the  popula¬ 
tion  of  the  South  was  homogeneous.  Our  people 
had  in  a  large  degree  the  same  traditions,  the  same 
early  training,  the  same  ambitions,  the  same  lan¬ 
guage,  the  same  ideals  socially,  politically  and  re¬ 
ligiously.  But  to-day,  particularly  in  the  South¬ 
west,  our  population  is  made  up  of  people  with 


192 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


traditions,  ambitions,  languages  and  ideals  im¬ 
ported  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe — as  widely 
divergent  in  intellectual,  political  and  moral  think¬ 
ing  as  in  geographical  origin.  Fifty  years  ago  it 
required  the  minimum  of  skill  on  the  part  of  the 
preacher  to  be  a  leader  of  the  homogeneous  rural 
population  of  the  South.  To-day  the  preacher 
who  is  to  fill  the  God-appointed  sphere  of  spiritual 
leader  must  be  equipped  with  the  best  possible 
training  to  meet  and  overcome  the  multitude  of 
divergent,  crude  and  heretical  notions  that  have 
been  imported  from  everywhere.  (4)  A  further 
handicap  to  efficient  rural  pastoral  leadership  is  a 
false  attitude  to  the  work.  If  the  country  preach¬ 
er’s  heart  is  not  loyal  to  rural  interests  he  cannot 
succeed  though  he  have  the  tongue  of  men  and  of 
angels.  If  he  does  not  love  country  people  and 
cannot  fall  easily  and  joyfully  into  their  domestic 
and  social  customs  he  cannot  lead  them.  If  cows 
and  pigs  and  birds  and  bees  and  fresh  plowed 
land  and  growing  crops  and  deep  woods  and  run¬ 
ning  streams  and  the  rattle  of  the  farm  wagon  on 
the  rocky  road  and  the  meadow’s  fragrant  breath 
do  not  fascinate  him  he  ought  to  move  back  to 
town.  He  can  never  lead  a  rural  minded  people. 
And  he  is  constitutionally  unfitted  for  rural  lead¬ 
ership  if  he  is  unwilling  to  live  in  the  country 
where  his  work  is.  He  may  get  along  fairly  well 
/  against  the  handicap  of  living  in  town  if  the  con¬ 
ditions  make  it  necessary.  But  the  rural  pastor 


SOME  MODEBN  DEMANDS 


193 


who  lives  in  town  because  he  does  not  like  to  live 
in  the  country  is  a  failure  by  inherent  maladjust¬ 
ment.  (5)  Another  hindrance  to  rural  pastoral 
leadership  is  the  pastor’s  limited  time  on  the  field. 
The  “  fourth-time  ”  church  makes  efficient  pastoral 
leadership  impossible.  There  never  was  a  “  fourth¬ 
time  ”  pastorate.  There  are  many  fourth-time 
preaching  stations,  but  even  an  angel  of  light  could 
not  be  pastor  of  a  church  and  spend  only  two  days 
out  of  each  month  on  the  field.  Consecutive,  con¬ 
structive  pastoral  leadership  is  impossible  under 
such  a  travesty  on  the  pastoral  relation.  The 
preacher  may  be  a  devoted  man  and  will  do  some 
good,  but  as  an  effective  leader  in  the  community 
he  is  a  mere  figurehead.  Twenty-eight  days  out 
of  the  month  his  body  is  elsewhere  and  his  mind  is 
on  something  else.  How  can  he  lead  the  sheep  if 
he  only  sees  them  on  the  “  fourth  Sunday  in  each 
month  and  Saturday  before”?  (6)  Another  hin¬ 
drance  is  frequent  change  of  field.  Time  was  when 
a  country  pastorate  of  thirty  to  fifty  years  dura¬ 
tion  was  not  an  uncommon  thing.  Now  the  pas¬ 
toral  tether,  particularly  with  country  and  village 
churches,  is  from  one  to  two  years.  More  often 
one  than  two.  Real  leadership  requires  time  for 
perfecting  plans  and  establishing  confidence.  A 
brief  pastorate  may  admit  of  fervour  and  en¬ 
thusiasm  and  a  superficial  success,  but  it  makes  im¬ 
possible  constructive,  permanent,  far-reaching  lead¬ 
ership.  I  am  not  seeking  to  place  the  blame, 


194 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


whether  on  the  church  or  on  the  pastor,  but  I  sus¬ 
pect  that  if  all  the  facts  were  in,  honours  or  dis¬ 
honours  would  be  found  about  equally  divided. 
The  chief  cause  of  these  frequent  and  disastrous 
changes  are  (a)  the  failure  of  the  country  church 
to  provide  a  decent  support  for  the  preacher;  (b) 
the  ultra-conservatism  of  country  people  making 
them  unwilling  to  follow  the  leadership  of  a  wide¬ 
awake  aggressive  pastor;  (c)  the  preacher’s  am¬ 
bition  to  be  considered  prominent;  and  (d)  the 
preacher’s  unwillingness  to  get  down  to  the  drudg¬ 
ery  of  the  pastorate  after  the  newness  has  worn  off. 

But  some  one  says,  if  pastoral  leadership  fails, 
why  not  turn  to  lay  leadership  ?  The  trouble  is  it, 
too,  has  its  inherent,  almost  prohibitive,  weak¬ 
nesses.  To  begin  with,  the  farmer’s  ultra  conser¬ 
vatism  makes  him  a  poor  leader.  Water  cannot 
rise  above  its  level.  Again,  highly  developed  in¬ 
dividualism  among  rural  populations  makes  lead¬ 
ership  a  difficult  task.  It  leads  the  masses  to  re¬ 
sent  one  of  their  own  number  trying  to  lead  them, 
and  it  causes  the  proposed  leader  to  resist  the  idea 
that  he  should  have  any  altruistic  interest  in  or 
personal  responsibility  for  the  public  welfare.  For 
another  thing,  neighbourhood  jealousies  make  local 
lay  leadership  practically  impossible.  If  a  layman 
develops  and  begins  to  exercise  some  functions  of 
leadership,  the  people  at  once  begin  to  suspect  him 
and  call  him  a  boss — a  dictator.  Soon  he  retires 
from  his  advanced  position,  made  sore  by  the  criti- 


SOME  MODEEN  DEMANDS 


195 


cism  and  opposition  v/hich  jealousy  inspires,  and 
the  church  drops  back  into  its  former  dying  rate 
of  spineless  conservatism.  Petty  neighbourhood 
feuds  also  hinder  lay  leadership.  If  this  man  takes 
any  prominent  part  in  the  work  that  one  will  not 
work  at  all  because  forsooth  their  fathers  quar¬ 
relled  over  a  division-fence  twenty  years  ago. 

Now,  a  word  of  practical  suggestion  looking  to 
a  solution  of  this  leadership  problem.  Concerning 
the  preacher  I  would  suggest  three  things :  ( 1 )  In¬ 
sist  upon  his  availing  himself  of  his  many  oppor¬ 
tunities  for  education  and  equipment;  (2)  deliver 
him  from  the  handicap  of  preoccupation  by  paying 
him  a  living  wage ;  ( 3  )  insist  upon  his  making  his 
home  among  the  people  to  whom  he  ministers. 
This  would  of  course  imply  that  each  church  shall 
have  its  own  pastor — the  whole  and  not  the  half  or 
the  fourth  of  a  preacher.  Most  of  the  half-time 
and  many  of  the  fourth-time  churches  could  do  this 
if  the  church  would  adopt  even  approximately  the 
scriptural  ideal  of  giving  and  if  the  preacher  would 
be  willing  to  live  among  and  as  his  people.  Con¬ 
cerning  the  layman  and  leadership,  I  would  suggest 
three  things:  (1)  Cultivate  an  atmosphere  of 
vision — of  high  spiritual  ideals.  Nothing  will  con¬ 
tribute  more  to  the  quality  of  leadership  than  a 
quickened  spiritual  nature,  an  opening  of  the  eyes 
to  see  the  otherwise  invisible  hosts  on  the  moun¬ 
tain  side.  (2)  Suggest  to  individuals  spheres 
where  leadership  may  be  exercised,  not  only  in  the 


196 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


church  but  in  general  community  interests,  and  see 
that  the  responsibility  of  such  leadership  is  laid 
upon  them.  Let  your  man  get  the  taste  of  leader¬ 
ship  in  some  altruistic  community  movement,  even 
though  it  is  outside  the  church,  and  he  will  be 
thereby  encouraged  and  qualified  for  leadership  in 
the  church.  (3)  When  a  man  has  been  set  to  lead 
in  any  phase  of  church  life,  urge  all  the  people  to 
encourage  him  and  cooperate  with  him  in  it,  thus 
discouraging  petty  jealousies  and  neighbourhood 
feuds. 

A  lack  of  efficient  leadership  explains  all  the 
other  weaknesses  of  the  church.  Put  your  finger 
where  you  will  indicating  the  weak  spot  in  your 
church  and  it  can  be  easily  shown  that  this  weak¬ 
ness  could  be  remedied  by  capable  leadership  in 
so  far  as  human  skill  can  remedy  it.  The  problem 
of  our  churches  is  the  problem  of  leadership.  We 
are  guilty  of  criminal  negligence  if  we  do  not  more 
intelligently  discover,  develop  and  utilize  the  latent 
leadership  lying  in  waste  places  all  about  us. 

VI.  But  still  another  task  thcU  the  twentieth 
century  life  has  brought  to  the  preacher  is  that  of 
stopping  the  leak  by  which  the  churches  are  losing 
annually  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  their  increase.  In 
former  days  of  slow  and  difficult  travel  and  limited 
knowledge  of  the  outside  world  there  was  a  mini¬ 
mum  of  moving  from  place  to  place.  It  was  thus 
easy  for  a  church  to  keep  in  touch  with  its  mem¬ 
bership.  But  now  since  the  world  has  grown  so 


BOME  MODERN  DEMANDS 


197 


small  and  the  means  of  getting  over  it  so  easy, 
rapid  and  cheap,  people  are  constantly  “  on  the 
move/^  It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  fact  presents  a 
problem  to  our  churches.  The  condition  in  multi¬ 
tudes  of  our  communities  justifies  the  remark  of 
the  minister  who  said  he  preached  to  a  procession 
and  not  a  congregation.  Under  such  conditions, 
how  easy  it  is  for  a  church  to  lose  a  large  per 
cent,  of  the  results  of  its  evangelistic  efforts. 

When  water  is  scarce  and  hard  to  get  a  wise  man 
looks  for  and  tries  to  stop  all  the  leaks  in  his 
vessels.  A  little  investigation  will  convince  any 
thoughtful  man  that  the  matter  now  being  dis¬ 
cussed  furnishes  a  grave  problem  for  modern 
Christianity.  Let  us  illustrate: 

By  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  E.  E.  King,  the  author 
has  been  permitted  to  examine  his  file  of  the  min¬ 
utes  of  Collin  County  (Texas)  Baptist  Associa¬ 
tion  for  the  past  twenty  years.  This  is  numerically 
the  largest  and  in  every  respect  one  of  the  best  asso¬ 
ciations  in  Texas.  During  the  twenty  years  from 
1897  to  1916  the  association  showed  the  following 
statistics : 

Increase  in  Membership 


By  baptisms . 10,758 

By  letter .  8,682 

By  restoration .  513 

By  statement .  327 


Total  increase . 20,280 


198 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


For  the  same  twenty  years  they  had  the  follow¬ 
er 

Decrease  in  Membership 


By  letter .  8,203 

By  exclusion .  1,333 

By  death  .  872 

Dropped .  907 


Total  decrease . 11,315 


Subtracting  total  decrease  from  total  increase 
leaves  a  net  increase  of  8,960.  In  1897  they  had 
a  total  membership  of  4,991.  Add  to  this  the  sum 
of  8,960,  their  net  increase  for  twenty  years,  and 
it  gives  13,951,  which  should  be  their  total  present 
membership.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  their  present 
membership  is  only  8,270.  This  shows  that  ^,68 1 
out  of  the  20,280  additions  have  slipped  through 
their  fingers.  According  to  the  records  they 
have  not  died  nor  have  they  been  dismissed 
by  letter  nor  excluded,  nor  even  “  dropped.’’ 
They  have  just  played  out — evaporated.  To  re¬ 
turn  to  our  figure,  we  fill  the  bucket  every  day  and 
it  leaks  out  one-fourth  of  its  contents  every  night. 
What  has  become  of  these  5,681  whilom  Baptists? 
They  say  there  are  only  three  ways  to  get  out  of  a 
Baptist  church — by  letter,  by  expulsion,  by  death. 
These  5,681  did  not  go  out  through  any  of  these 
gates,  and  yet  they  are  out. 

When  the  western  stockmen  ask  Pastor  R.  F. 
Jenkins  what  business  he  is  in,  he  has  a  way  of 
saying,  I  am  in  the  sheep  business.”  If  he  should 


SOME  MODERN  DEMANDS 


199 


tell  the  stockman  that  in  addition  to  those  that  he 
sells  or  kills  or  those  that  die  of  disease  he  loses 
every  year  one-fourth  of  his  sheep  and  is  not  able 
to  tell  what  became  of  them,  I  suspect  the  west¬ 
erner  would  set  him  down  as  a  poor  sheepman  and 
advise  him  to  go  into  some  other  business. 

Collin  County  is  not  peculiar  in  this  matter. 
This  one  is  cited  because  I  happened  to  have  the 
data  convenient.  Nor  is  this  leakage  a  Baptist 
peculiarity ;  any  other  denomination  would  probably 
make  as  bad  a  showing — some  of  them  perhaps 
worse. 

But  for  a  further  illustration  of  this  leak,  let  us 
take  a  glance  at  the  statistics  of  the  Southern  Bap¬ 
tist  Convention.  In  this  same  twenty  years,  from 
1896  to  1916,  they  have  baptized  2,330,000.  Dur¬ 
ing  that  period  they  show  an  actual  net  increase  of 
1,106,000.  Thus  their  increase  is  less  than  half 
the  number  they  have  baptized.  In  other  words, 
they  have  lost  half  the  people  they  have  baptized. 
Based  on  these  figures,  the  report  of  a  church  to  an 


association  would  read  like  this: 

Baptized . 100 

Died  .  15 

Excluded .  3 

Dropped  (formally)  .  3 

Still  members  or  dismissed  by 

letter .  47 

Evaporated .  32 


100  100 


200 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


In  short  of  every  100  members  received  in  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  in  the  last  twenty 
years,  thirty-two  have  leaked  out  and  no  one 
knows  where  nor  how. 

May  I  suggest  four  things  that  in  my  judgment 
are  largely  responsible  for  the  leak:  (1)  Careless¬ 
ness  in  receiving  members.  In  the  first  place  we 
do  not  give  due  diligence  to  ascertain  if  applicants 
have  been  really  converted.  A  magnetic  evangelist 
gets  the  crowd  going  his  way  and  numbers  are 
taken  into  the  church  night  after  night  practically 
without  examination,  investigation  or  instruction. 
Many  of  these  being  without  genuine  faith  drop 
out  and  ought  to  drop  out.  One  of  our  most  suc¬ 
cessful  evangelists,  whom  I  greatly  honour,  has 
not  liked  me  for  twenty-five  years  because  at  the 
beginning  of  a  meeting  he  held  with  me  I  publicly 
requested  that  all  who  desired  to  join  the  church 
during  the  meeting  should  confer  with  the  pastor 
before  making  application  for  membership.  We 
did  not  have  as  many  joiners  as  we  would  if  the 
pastor  had  taken  the  bridle  off,  but  we  probably 
had  better  stickers.  (2)  Slipshod  methods  in  re¬ 
ceiving  those  who  join.  Most  of  the  people  who 
join  the  church  under  my  observation  get  in  with 
almost  nothing  being  said  about  the  sacredness  of 
the  obligation  implied  in  church  membership.  For 
the  first  four  years  of  its  history  nobody  ever 
joined  Seventh  and  James  Street  Church,  Waco, 
without  hearing  the  Church  Covenant  read  and 


SOME  MODEEN  DEMANDS 


201 


solemnly  promising  to  live  up  to  the  ideals  set 
forth  therein.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  glorious 
achievements  of  that  noble  church  are  largely  due 
to  this  habit  in  its  foundation  days.  One  of  the 
things  they  thus  promised  was,  “  When  we  remove 
from  this  place  we  will,  as  soon  as  possible,  unite 
with  some  other  church.”  Emphasizing  this  duty 
would  prevent  much  of  our  leakage  in  membership. 
(3)  A  lack  of  diligent  pastoral  oversight.  The 
New  Testament  ideal  of  pastoral  oversight  would 
imply  that  if  a  member  left  the  community  the 
pastor  would  know  when  he  left  and  where  he 
went,  and  try  to  put  the  church  in  the  new  com¬ 
munity  in  touch  with  him.  The  so-called  pastor, 
who  for  any  reason  dissuades  one  of  his  members 
from  moving  his  membership  when  he  removes  to 
another  community,  is  too  silly  to  preach  even  to 
a  flock  of  geese  and  too  selfish  to  minister  to  a 
pack  of  wolves.  But  God  forbid  that  I  should  put 
all  the  blame  for  this  lack  of  pastoral  oversight  on 
the  preacher.  How  can  a  quarter-time  preacher  or 
an  absentee  preacher  or  a  preacher  semi-secularized 
to  keep  his  family  from  want,  exercise  diligent  pas¬ 
toral  oversight?  If  we  wish  to  stop  this  decimat¬ 
ing  of  our  flocks  we  must  put  up  the  money  to 
support  some  shepherds  while  they  care  for  the 
sheep.  (4)  A  failure  to  utilize  lay-helpers  in  look¬ 
ing  after  the  membership.  In  Kentucky  a  country 
church  had  as  its  pastor  a  theological  professor 
who  was  therefore  necessarily  an  absentee  pastor 


202 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


except  for  his  twice-a-month  visits.  Realizing  that 
under  this  handicap  he  could  not  personally  look 
after  his  flock  he  divided  the  membership  into  eight 
or  ten  groups,  committed  each  group  to  a  carefully 
selected  member  of  the  church — and  made  it  his 
duty  to  exercise  oversight  of  those  on  his  list. 
Such  a  method  carefully  planned  and  diligently 
worked  would  certainly  prevent  much  of  the  waste 
growing  out  of  members  falling  by  the  way  and 
being  ultimately  lost  to  the  work  of  the  church. 

As  a  matter  of  self-preservation  we  must  check 
this  leak.  To  gain  nothing  is  bad,  but  to  reck¬ 
lessly  waste  what  we  gain  is  worse.  A  good  many 
years  ago  Mr.  Roosevelt  began  emphasizing  the 
shameful  waste  of  our  material  resources — our 
forests,  our  waterways,  our  mineral  wealth.  While 
the  evil  is  by  no  means  entirely  overcome  we  have 
made  notable  progress,  as  the  result  of  influences 
he  inaugurated,  in  the  conservation  of  these  sources 
of  temporal  prosperity.  In  the  church  our  chief 
human  resources  are  men  and  women.  With 
amazing  extravagance  and  appalling  indifference, 
we  are  wasting  these  resources.  Let  us  pray  that 
God  will  raise  up  some  mighty  man  who  will  show 
us  how  to  conserve,  husband,  utilize  these  our 
marvellous  elements  of  strength. 


X 


THE  NON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  OF 

THE  OFFICE 

**  I  am  ready  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  you  also 
that  are  in  Rome” — Romans  1 :  14. 

Beyond  question  the  pastor’s  primary,  es¬ 
sential,  paramount  duty  is  to  his  own  par¬ 
ish.  Above  everything  else  he  must  be  a 
shepherd  to  the  particular  flock  of  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  made  him  overseer.  This  truth  cannot 
be  stated  with  too  much  emphasis  nor  held  with 
too  much  tenacity.  But  this  fact  does  not  preclude 
the  proposition  that  the  office  of  pastor  not  only 
permits  but  implies  duties  beyond  the  local  pastor¬ 
ate.  Let  this  chapter  be  given  to  the  consideration 
of  some  of  these  outside  duties. 

1.  His  duty  to  the  general  activities  of  his  own 
denomination.  He  is  a  sorry  preacher  who  takes 
no  part  and  feels  no  pride  in  the  educational, 
beneficent,  and  missionary  activities  of  his  people. 
He  will  rejoice  in  all  altruistic  enterprises  by 
whomsoever  fostered,  but  if  he  is  the  right  sort  of 
man  he  will  take  special  interest  and  experience 
peculiar  pride  in  the  general  activities  of  his  own 

people.  In  certain  sentimental  and  superficial  at- 

203 


204 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


mospheres  the  word  denominationalism  ’’  has 
come  to  have  a  bad  odour.  There  seems  to  be  a 
distinct  if  not  organized  propaganda  intended  to 
discount  as  narrow  and  bigoted  the  man  who  shows 
a  romantic  devotion  to  the  doctrines,  practices  and 
activities  of  his  own  denomination.  Is  a  man 
narrow  because  he  takes  pride  in  the  history  and 
achievement  of  his  own  family?  Is  a  citizen  of 
this  country  a  pent-up  provincialist  discounting  the 
courage  of  English,  French  and  Italian  soldiers 
because  of  the  peculiar  glow  that  came  over  his 
soul  when  he  read  of  the  noble  part  the  American 
soldier  played  in  the  recent  world  war?  Are  pa¬ 
triotism  and  provincialism  identical?  Are  loyalty 
and  bigotry  synonymous?  Dr.  J.  B.  Gambrell 
quaintly  said:  “  I  would  not  have  a  dog  that  would 
as  soon  trot  under  another  man’s  wagon  as  under 
my  own.”  I  am  sure  my  distinguished  friend 
would  heartily  accept  the  converse  of  his  proposi¬ 
tion  stated  somewhat  like  this :  I  would  not  have 
a  dog  that  felt  called  upon  to  raise  a  row  with  every 
dog  trotting  under  any  other  man’s  wagon.”  One 
of  these  statements  looks  toward  denominational 
loyalty;  the  other  toward  Christian  courtesy  and 
fellowship.  They  are  by  no  means  incompatible. 
The  man  who  cannot  with  all  the  unflinching 
chivalry  of  a  knight  errant  stand  for  the  doctrines, 
traditions,  past  achievements,  present  plans  and  fu¬ 
ture  prospects  of  his  own  people  and  at  the  same 
time  recognize,  rejoice  in,  and  thank  God  for  the 


THE  NON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  206 


good  to  be  found  in  others,  is  too  small  to  be  an 
exponent  of  the  democracy  of  Jesus.  If  a  bellicose 
ministry  was  a  menace  in  a  past  generation,  a 
jellyfish  ministry  is  doubly  a  menace  in  this. 

Now  having  said  this  much  by  way  of  empha¬ 
sizing  the  general  proposition  of  denominational 
loyalty,  let  us  consider  some  of  the  specific  duties 
that  the  preacher  owes  to  his  denomination. 

(1)  He  should  be  familiar  with  and  help  to 
circulate  the  literature  that  deals  with  the  propa¬ 
ganda  of  his  people, — whether  in  its  doctrines  or 
its  practical  activities.  Each  of  the  great  religious 
denominations  has  its  weekly  paper  devoted  to  the 
general  interest  of  its  work  and  its  missionary 
literature  devoted  to  world  evangelization.  De¬ 
nominational  esprit  de  corps,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
highest  degree  of  usefulness,  demands  that  the 
preacher  shall  be  a  diligent  student  of  this  litera¬ 
ture.  It  is  good  for  the  preacher  to  have  a  wide 
range  of  reading.  It  is  good  for  him  to  be  fa¬ 
miliar  with  the  teachings  of  the  fathers.  It  is  good 
if  he  has  wide  knowledge  of  current  theological 
literature  and  knows  the  trend  of  every  school  of 
religious  thought.  But  it  is  little  short  of  a  tragedy 
if  he  shall  become  so  obsessed  with  the  past  or  so 
enamoured  of  the  broad  currents  of  the  present  that 
he  has  no  time  and  no  heart  for  the  present-day 
practical  achievements  of  his  own  people.  With¬ 
out  discounting  the  value  of  anything  else  in  which 
he  may  be  legitimately  interested,  it  is  unquestion- 


206 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


ably  true  that  for  all  practical  purposes  in  world 
evangelization  he  is  the  most  useful  preacher  who 
knows  and  takes  pride  in  the  literature  and  achieve¬ 
ment  of  his  own  people. 

But  the  right  sort  of  preacher  will  not  stop  with 
a  personal  knowledge  of  the  activities  of  his  own 
people  nor  will  he  be  satisfied  with  personal  loyalty 
to  them.  He  will  seek  every  means  of  giving  this 
information  to  his  people  and  arousing  their  loyalty 
to  all  the  practical  altruistic  enterprises  of  their 
own  denomination.  When  a  pastor  becomes  so 
spirituelle  that  he  cannot  get  down  to  such  prac¬ 
tical  things  as,  for  example,  the  circulation  of  his 
own  denominational  paper,  he  has  about  become  so 
good  that  he  is  good  for  nothing. 

(2)  Again  the  right-minded  preacher  will  seek 
to  objectify  denominational  intelligence  and  de¬ 
nominational  loyalty  into  contributions  of  cash  to 
maintain  denominational  enterprises.  Happy  the 
preacher  who  has  right  conceptions  of  the  doctrine 
of  stewardship  in  the  matter  of  money  and  who  is 
willing  to  teach  it  faithfully  and  who  has  the  gift 
of  causing  this  teaching  to  bear  its  fruit  in  sacri¬ 
ficial  giving.  Some  have  right  views  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  but  fail  to  teach  them.  Others  teach  them 
faithfully  enough  but  seem  unable  to  practically 
apply  their  teaching  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  pro¬ 
duce  practical  results.  Others  not  only  hold  and 
teach  right  views  of  stewardship  but  are  able  to 
cause  this  teaching  to  materialize.  They  know  how 


THE  NON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  207 


when  they  have  preached  on  financial  stewardship 
to  get  their  people  to  “  perform  the  doing  of  it” 
It  is  a  fine  art  and  every  preacher  owes  it  to  him¬ 
self,  to  his  people  and  to  his  God  to  become  an 
adept  in  it.  I  have  intimated  elsewhere  in  these 
lectures  that  money  raising  is  not  the  highest  func¬ 
tion  of  the  preacher.  But  there  is  no  inconsistency 
between  that  statement  and  the  proposition  that  a 
true  pastor  will  see  to  it  that  his  people  give  of 
their  means  to  maintain  all  the  altruistic  enter¬ 
prises  of  his  denomination.  It  is  not  only  his  duty 
to  see  that  they  give  this  money  to  these  activities 
but  he  must  create  for  them  such  an  atmosphere 
in  his  congregation  that  giving  will  be  done  not 
niggardly  but  liberally;  not  grudgingly  but  hilari¬ 
ously  ;  not  superficially  but  sacrificially. 

(3)  But  the  pastor  owes  still  another  duty  to  his 
'denomination  at  large.  He  should  be  an  active 
and  intelligent  participant  in  formulating  the  poli¬ 
cies  and  plans  by  which  his  denomination  is  to 
function  in  its  benevolent,  educational  and  mission¬ 
ary  program.  This  does  not  imply  that  he  is  to  be 
overweeningly  ambitious  for  leadership.  It  simply 
means  that  he  will  hold  himself  ready  for  any  serv¬ 
ice  to  the  cause  at  large  for  which  he  may  be  quali¬ 
fied  and  to  which  his  brethren  may  call  him.  It 
does  not  imply  that  he  shall  become  a  religious  gad¬ 
about  but  it  does  mean  that  he  will  when  at  all 
practicable  be  a  regular,  an  interested  and  an  in¬ 
telligent  attendant  upon  the  district,  state  and  na- 


208 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


tional  meetings  of  his  denomination,  diligently  per¬ 
forming  in  these  connections  such  duties  as  may  be 
assigned  to  him. 

2.  We  shall  now  consider  briefly  the  pastor  in 
the  social  circle.  He  is  a  member  of  society  as 
well  as  a  member  of  the  church.  He  has  his  ob¬ 
ligations  to  one  as  truly  as  to  the  other.  In  a  very 
peculiar  way  he  is,  more  than  other  men,  a  servant 
of  the  church  but  like  other  men  he  is  also  a  serv¬ 
ant  of  society.  In  finding  his  true  course  here  he 
must  often,  like  the  mythological  ancients,  sail  be¬ 
tween  Scylla  and  Charybdis.  Dr.  Hoppin  says: 

There  may  be  two  opposite  errors  in  ministerial 
conduct  in  regard  to  society:  a  minister  may  have 
so  strong  a  desire  to  separate  himself  from  worldly 
things  and  worldly  men  as  entirely  to  lose  the  so¬ 
cial  spirit;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  he  may  have  so 
intense  a  desire  to  smooth  the  way  for  good  in¬ 
fluence  among  all  men,  and  to  come  down  to  the 
level  and  sympathy  of  all,  that  he  may  not  only 
thereby  lose  his  dignity,  but  may  compromise  his 
principles;  and  he  may  unconsciously  adopt  the 
principles  of  the  world  and  of  the  evil  there  is  in 
society.  He  may  go  so  far  as  to  come  upon  the 
ground  of  doing  evil  that  good  may  come.  The 
Saviour  said  of  His  disciples,  ‘  They  are  not  of 
the  world,  even  as  I  am  not  of  the  world  ^ ;  yet  He 
prayed  that  His  disciples  should  not  be  taken  out 
of  the  world,  but  kept  from  its  evil.  The  middle 
course  is  thus  the  true  one.  While  in  the  world. 


THE  NON- OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  209 


he  should  not  be  of  the  world ;  but  he  should  show 
that  religion  is  a  principle  strong  enough  to  live 
in  the  world.  If  the  minister  surrenders  too  much, 
and  suffers  himself  to  be  governed  by  the  same 
principles  that  govern  the  world,  so  that  he  may 
have  social  intercourse  with  it,  he  gives  no  clear 
testimony  to  the  divine  spirit  of  his  Master,  neither 
will  he  be  able  by  this  means  to  raise  society  but 
will  himself  be  dragged  down  by  it.’' 

It  is  a  humiliating  fact  that  even  some  of  the 
best  of  ministers  in  the  matter  of  urbanity,  courtesy 
and  refined  manners  often  suffer  in  comparison 
with  men  of  the  world.  They  seem  not  quite  so 
scrupulous  in  the  amenities  of  social  intercourse 
and  the  ordinary  requirements  of  the  well-bred 
gentleman.  Because  a  minister  removed  his  hat 
while  talking  to  a  lady  in  a  hotel  lobby,  a  brother 
minister  standing  near  said  contemptuously, ''  Look 
at  that  fop.”  The  preacher  is  not  to  affect  the 
tricks  of  a  dancing  master  but  he  is  to  be  a  man 
of  sterling  refinement.  I  am  for  the  man  with  his 
hat  off  and  his  coat  on  in  the  presence  of  a  lady. 
Unless  he  would  mar  his  usefulness  he  must  both 
know  and  practice  the  courtesies  common  among 
cultured  people.  In  his  addresses  before  Felix, 
Festus,  Agrippa,  and  on  Mars  Hill,  Paul  mani¬ 
fested  the  highest  type  of  both  physical  and  moral 
courage.  But  who  ever  read  these  courageous  ad¬ 
dresses  without  seeing  in  them  the  evidences  that, 
with  all  courage,  Paul  combined  the  elements  of 


210 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


courtesy  and  refinement.  He  was  as  brave  as 
Julius  Caesar  and  as  courteous  as  Chesterfield.  Dr. 
Barron  is  about  right  in  saying  that  the  character¬ 
istics  of  a  gentleman  consist  chiefly  of  two  quali¬ 
ties — courage  and  courtesy.  Let  us  pray  that  in 
every  preacher  these  two  qualities  may  be  so  mixed 
that  the  whole  world  may  point  to  him  as  the  ideal 
man.  Substitute  the  word  “  Preacher  ”  for  the 
word  “  Christian  ”  in  the  following  utterance  from 
President  Woolsey  of  Yale  and  you  have  well  ex¬ 
pressed  the  truth  I  am  seeking  to  emphasize:  It 
is  a  lamentable  fact  that  some  men,  who  have  had 
no  pretensions  to  a  religious  character  and  neglect 
their  duty  toward  God,  are  gentler,  more  forbear¬ 
ing,  polite,  and  courteous  in  social  life,  than  some 
men  of  undoubted  piety.  Why  is  this  ?  It  may  be 
for  the  same  reason  that  a  clergyman  who  dabbles 
in  commercial  matters  will  do  things  at  which 
honest  merchants  would  hesitate.  They  are  in  the 
habit  of  examining  questions  belonging  to  mer¬ 
cantile  honesty,  and  he  is  not.  And  so  a  man  who 
has  learned  that  the  gentlemanly  character  involves 
gentleness  and  forbearance,  being  desirous  of  the 
character  or  the  reputation  of  it,  will  put  a  force 
upon  himself,  and  become  habituated  to  those 
qualities,  or  at  least  to  the  show  of  them,  without 
having  yet  attained  to  true  fundamental  virtue. 
Thus  we  see  that  by  familiarity  with  the  duties  to 
society  involved  in  the  term  gentleman,  one  man 
of  no  very  exalted  virtue  will  have  a  great  ad- 


THE  NON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  211 


vantage  over  another  of  the  best  disposition  who 
has  overlooked  them.  It  seems  to  us,  when  the 
amount  of  influence  and  happiness  lost  by  this 
neglect  is  considered,  that  it  is  wholly  inexcusable. 
Indeed,  we  know  not  what  can  excuse  a  Christian, 
the  servant  of  the  gentlest,  kindest,  justest  Master, 
from  being  a  gentleman,  unless  a  natural  want  of 
delicacy  of  feeling,  which  it  is  beyond  his  power  to 
alter.  With  no  such  defect  he  ought  to  be  the 
more  successful  in  rearing  the  flowers  of  gentle¬ 
manly  intercourse,  for  they  have  with  him  a  better 
root.  And  he  cannot  fail  of  being  more  successful, 
if  he  will  form  a  clear  notion  of  this  term  in  its 
highest  import,  and  feel  that  it  may  help  him  in 
practice  to  have  such  a  standard  before  his  eyes. 
There  is  every  need  that  a  Christian  should  be  a 
gentleman,  a  man  of  gentle  soul  and  manners,  of 
the  nicest  justice,  of  simplicity  in  character  and 
taste,  of  a  collected  spirit;  there  is  ordinarily  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  be  one.”  Thackeray 
gives  a  good  definition  of  the  word  gentleman 
when  he  says:  It  is  to  be  honest,  to  be  gentle,  to 
be  generous,  to  be  brave,  to  be  wise,  and,  possess¬ 
ing  all  these  qualities,  to  exercise  them  in  the  most 
graceful  outward  manner.”  Bishop  Hare  put  it 
well  when  he  said :  The  real  gentleman  should 
be  gentle  in  everything,  at  least  in  everything  that 
depends  on  himself, — in  carriage,  temper,  con¬ 
structions,  aims,  desires.  He  ought  therefore  to  be 
mild,  calm,  quiet,  even,  temperate,  not  hasty  in 


212 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


judgment,  not  exorbitant  in  ambition,  not  over¬ 
bearing,  not  proud,  not  rapacious,  not  oppressive; 
for  these  things  are  contrary  to  gentleness.” 

May  a  Avord  be  spoken  here  touching  the  test  of 
a  preacher  as  a  gentleman  in  his  attitude  to  women  ? 
Paul  states  the  broad  principle  when  he  exhorts 
Timothy  to  treat  “the  elder  women  as  mothers; 
the  younger  as  sisters  with  all  purity.”  In  the 
South,  and  particularly  in  the  old  South,  the  for¬ 
mal  deference  paid  to  womankind  has  been  almost 
a  replica  of  the  old  days  of  chivalry  and  knight 
errantry.  Women  in  competition  with  men  in 
commercial  life  and  at  the  ballot  box  will  doubt¬ 
less  tend  to  modify  this  attitude  at  least  in  exter¬ 
nal  formalities.  There  are,  however,  some  of  us 
who  hope  that  the  time  will  never  come  when  it 
will  cease  to  be  true  that  one  of  the  distinguishing 
marks  of  a  gentleman  is  the  deference  and  courtesy 
he  accords  to  women.  In  my  training,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  I  was  diligently  taught  that  no  gentleman 
would  remain  seated  while  a  lady  stood  whether 
in  a  parlour  or  a  public  hall  or  a  railway  train  or 
a  street  car.  From  this  tradition  of  our  fathers 
I  pray  that  neither  I  nor  my  sons,  nor  my  sons' 
sons  shall  ever  depart.  Every  time  I  see  a  young 
ruffian  violate  that  rule  I  feel  like  taking  him  by 
the  collar.  “  Ladies  first  ”  was  the  chivalrous  slo¬ 
gan  when  passengers  were  being  rescued  from  the 
sinking  Titanic.  I  trust  that  no  young  preacher 
who  fails  to  live  up  to  that  rule  will  ever  dishonour 


THE  NON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  213 


me  by  referring  to  me  as  his  teacher.  Concerning 
that  typical  gentleman  Robert  E.  Lee,  Dr.  Bond 
tells  the  following  story:  General  Lee  was  in  the 
cars  going  to  Richmond,  and  had  a  seat  at  the 
extreme  end.  The  other  seats  were  filled  with 
officers  and  soldiers.  An  old  woman,  of  humble 
appearance,  entered  at  one  of  the  stations,  and 
finding  no  seat,  and  none  having  been  offered  her, 
approached  the  general.  He  immediately  arose, 
and  gave  her  his  seat.  Immediately  there  was  a 
general  rising,  and  proffering  of  seats  to  ‘  Marse 
Robert,*  but  he  calmly  said,  ‘No,  gentlemen:  if 
there  was  no  seat  for  the  infirm  old  woman,  there 
can  be  none  for  me.*  The  effect  was  remarkable. 
One  after  another  got  out  of  the  car,  as  if  the  seats 
were  too  hot  to  sit  on ;  and  the  general  and  the  old 
lady  soon  had  the  car  before  them  where  to 
choose.**  If  a  preacher  has  not  in  him  instinctively 
this  element  of  chivalry  let  him  cultivate  it.  If 
there  is  in  him  no  embryonic  rudimentary  germ 
from  which  he  can  develop  the  real  sentiment,  then, 
as  a  matter  of  common  decency,  let  him  assume  it 
that  the  ministry  as  a  calling  be  not  blamed.  The 
preacher  should  be  God  Almighty*s  gentleman. 

“  The  next  best  thing  to  being  a  Christian,** 
wrote  William  Carey  to  his  son,  “  is  to  be  a  gentle¬ 
man.**  A  cultured  woman  was  rejoicing  in  my 
hearing  recently  over  the  fact  that  her  pastor  was 
a  man  of  refinement.  She  said,  “  Our  former  min¬ 
ister  meant  well  but  he  was  so  lacking  in  refine- 


214 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


ment  that  he  rarely  went  in  company  without  per¬ 
petrating  some  egregious  social  error.  But  I  would 
risk  our  present  pastor  in  any  company  with  the 
guarantee  that  he  would  meet  every  social  demand 
however  new  and  unexpected,  with  the  unerring 
instinct  of  a  gentleman.”  Such  a  state  of  affairs 
must  be  comforting  indeed  to  a  sensitive  woman. 
But  while  it  is  important  that  the  preacher  should 
be  a  gentleman  both  by  instinct  and  training  and 
should  be  able  to  conduct  himself  with  propriety 
in  any  social  circle  a  word  of  warning  needs  to  be 
spoken. — preacher  with  social  instincts  and 
qualified  to  move  easily  in  social  circles  is  in  con¬ 
stant  danger  of  yielding  too  much  time  to  the  so¬ 
cial  demands  of  the  community.  One  of  the  most 
popular  and  accomplished  ministers  in  the  South 
lamented  in  my  presence  recently,  as  if  it  were  a 
tragedy,  the  fact  that  the  demands  the  people  in 
his  congregation  and  out  of  it  made  upon  his  time 
for  purely  social  functions  had  well-nigh  dehearted 
him  of  spiritual  power.  The  gospel  preacher  is 
not  to  be  a  recluse,'  a  hermit,  an  anchorite,  but 
neither  is  he  to  forget  PauFs  “  this  one  thing  I 
do.”  I  seriously  doubt  the  preacher  having  a  right 
to  any  social  function  that  cannot  be  made  to  pay 
tribute  in  some  way  to  the  furtherance  of  the  Gos¬ 
pel  through  his  ministry.  It  is  glorious  if  he  can 
make  social  functions  contribute  to  the  spiritual 
success  of  his  ministry  but  it  is  nothing  short  of 
tragic  if  he  makes  his  ministry  subservient  to  so- 


THE  KON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  215 


cial  functions.  To  be  a  “  good  mixer  ”  is  a  much 
desired  and  a  very  desirable  quality  in  the  minis¬ 
try,  but  what  is  his  advantage  if  in  mixing  freely 
and  easily  with  the  people  he  does  not  turn  them 
to  the  Saviour  and  the  higher  and  holier  living? 
If  the  preacher  justifies  giving  a  large  part  of  his 
time  to  social  functions  on  the  ground  that  he  may 
thereby  refine  and  elevate  society,  there  are  two 
questions  to  be  asked:  (1)  What  will  society  do  to 
him  while  he  is  trying  to  elevate  it?  (2)  Is  the 
preacher’s  mission  merely  that  of  exercising  a  re¬ 
fining  and  elevating  influence?  When  Paul  wrote 
to  a  young  preacher:  “  These  things  speak  and  ex¬ 
hort  and  rebuke  with  all  authority,”  he  must  have 
had  in  mind  something  more  than  a  nice  polished 
gentleman  exercising  a  wholesome  influence  in  the 
social  circles  in  which  he  moved.  The  ideal 
preacher  will  never  forget  that  he  is  a  gentleman, 
neither  will  he  ever  forget  that  in  addition  to  being 
a  gentleman  he  is  a  prophet  of  God — a  man  sent 
from  God  whose  task  is  too  lofty  and  whose  time 
is  too  precious  for  much  of  the  so-called  social 
functions  of  our  modern  life.  Every  man  is  bound 
to  make  the  most  of  himself.  This  the  preacher 
cannot  do  if  he  allows  himself  to  be  made  a  social 
lion.  “  In  it  but  not  of  it  ”  is  the  preacher’s  safest 
attitude  toward  most  of  the  society  functions  of 
our  day.  John  Ruskin’s  saying,  “  An  artist  ought 
to  be  fit  for  society  and  keep  out  of  it,”  applies 
with  equal  force  to  the  preacher. 


216 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


This  is  a  good  place  to  say  a  much-needed  word 
about  the  minister’s  care  for  his  personal  appear¬ 
ance.  The  first  word  shall  be  about  his  apparel. 
Shakespeare  has  Polonius  saying  to  Laertes: 

Costly  thine  apparel  as  thy  purse  can  buy ;  but 
not  expressed  in  fancy:  rich,  not  gaudy;  for  the 
apparel  oft  proclaims  the  man.”  The  preacher 
should  not  become  a  walking  clothes-horse  for  a 
tailor-shop  but  he  should  consider  Shakespeare’s 
words  on  this  point  as  diligently  as  if  they  were 
Scripture.  A  shoddy,  ill-fitting  suit  of  clothes, 
baggy  at  the  knees  and  ornamented  here  and  there 
with  grease  spots  is  about  as  poor  a  recommenda¬ 
tion  as  a  preacher  can  carry  about  with  him.  It 
not  only  makes  him  unsightly  in  appearance,  but  it 
makes  him  uncomfortable  in  feeling  and  awkward 
in  bearing.  A  well-dressed  man  not  only  com¬ 
mands  increased  respect  from  other  people,  but  he 
has  a  heightened  respect  for  himself.  His  collar 
and  cuffs  and  shirt  front  should  be  as  immaculate 
as  his  reputation.  Normally  he  should  shave  every 
morning  as  scrupulously  as  he  washes  his  face. 
May  I  give  a  prescription  for  the  preacher's  first 
hour  after  arising?  Here  it  is:  A  bath,  a  shave, 
a  tooth-brush  vigorously  applied,  a  finger-nail  file 
skillfully  used,  a  brush  and  box  of  shinola  in  ap¬ 
propriate  contact  with  his  shoes,  a  few  minutes  of 
”  setting  up  exercise  in  some  approved  form  of 
physical  culture,  a  dip  into  God's  word  and  a  sea¬ 
son  of  prayer.  This  will  be  rather  bitter  medicine 


THE  NON- OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  217 


for  some  men  known  to  me,  but  I  risk  nothing  in 
guaranteeing  that  if  a  man  will  take  it  he  will  face 
the  day’s  task  not  “  like  the  quarry  slave  at  night 
scourged  to  his  dungeon”  but  with  a  buoyant, 
triumphant,  conquering  spirit — ^that  will  make 
work  a  joy  and  crown  the  day  with  success. 

In  this  connection  a  word  ought  to  be  said  touch¬ 
ing  the  minister  as  a  guest  in  the  homes  of  the 
people.  More  than  men  of  any  other  calling  he 
will  be  a  recipient  of  gracious  hospitality.  The 
minister  should  always  bear  in  mind  that  this 
courtesy  is  as  a  rule  not  for  his  own  sake,  but 
for  the  sake  of  the  Master  whom  he  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  represent.  With  this  thought  ever 
before  him,  he  should  accept  hospitality  in 
such  a  spirit  as  to  bring  no  reproach  upon 
Him  whom  he  represents  in  the  home.  He 
should  also  constantly  remember  that  another  rea¬ 
son  why  he  is  a  guest  in  this  home  is  because  his 
hosts  believe  that  in  some  way  he  will  bring  a 
moral  and  spiritual  benediction  to  the  home.  What 
a  shame  if  his  conduct  is  such  as  to  disappoint  this 
reasonable  expectation.  Too  many  ministers  take 
these  courtesies  as  a  mere  matter  of  course  and 
show  little  or  no  appreciation  of  them,  A  loyal 
friend  and  frequent  host  of  preachers  was  saying 
the  other  day  that  very  few  ministers  who  had 
been  entertained  in  his  home  showed  by  word  or 
deed  the  slightest  appreciation  of  hospitality  ex¬ 
tended  them.  A  good  woman  talking  to  a  min- 


218 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


ister  recently  said,  “  I  want  to  thank  you  for  the 
nice  letter  you  wrote  us  after  you  had  been  a  guest 
in  our  home.  For  twenty-five  years  our  house  has 
been  the  preacher’s  home.  Scores  of  them  have 
been  our  guests  all  the  way  from  one  day  to  two 
weeks,  but  you  are  the  only  one  who  has  ever 
written  us  a  line  after  he  reached  home,  expressing 
appreciation  of  our  hospitality.” — I  almost  apolo¬ 
gize  for  making  public  the  fact  that  a  minister  of 
the  Gospel  supposed  to  be  a  man  of  refined  and 
knightly  character  could  so  far  forget  or  neglect 
the  common  instincts  of  a  gentleman.  The  fact  is 
mentioned  here  only  to  give  an  occasion  for  ex¬ 
pressing  the  hope  that  every  preacher  who  hears 
or  reads  these  words  will  make  it  a  part  of  life’s 
program  to  write  a  letter  of  thankful  appreciation, 
immediately  on  reaching  home,  for  the  hospitality 
of  a  brother’s  house. 

While  on  this  subject  let  us  think  for  a  moment 
of  the  fine  art  of  letter  writing  in  general.  It 
affords  the  preacher  at  once  a  fine  method  of  mak¬ 
ing  friends  and  an  open  door  for  usefulness.  Has 
a  friend  far  away  lost  a  loved  one?  Write  him 
a  letter  of  condolence  and  comfort.  Is  he  strug¬ 
gling  under  peculiar  burdens?  Write  him  a  letter 
of  sympathy  and  encouragement.  Has  he  gone 
over  the  top  with  some  noble  achievement?  Write 
him  a  letter  of  congratulation.  Has  he  written  a 
helpful  book  or  a  good  article  for  paper  or  maga¬ 
zine?  Write  him  a  letter  of  appreciation.  Is  he 


THE  NON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  219 


a  plodder,  pegging  away  at  the  commonplace  hum¬ 
drum  duties  of  an  obscure  and  non-spectacular  life? 
Write  him  a  letter  of  inspiration.  What  a  match¬ 
less  opportunity  letter  writing  affords  us  of  ful¬ 
filling  the  law  of  Christ  by  bearing  one  another’s 
burdens.  These  delicate  gentle  courtesies,  small  as 
they  may  appear,  are,  after  all,  the  things  that  give 
to  life  its  zest,  its  sweetness,  its  aroma.  A  gentle¬ 
man,  to  say  nothing  of  a  Christian,  should 
brighten  the  corner  ”  for  his  friends.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  his  contact  along  this  line  will 
be  largely  with  people  of  his  own  religious  faith, 
but  it  should  not  be  confined  to  them  alone.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  church,  but  he  is  also  a  citizen  of 
the  world.  His  sympathies  and  helpful  ministra¬ 
tions  and  delicate  attentions  should  reach  out  even 
to  those  we  call  men  of  the  world.  He  may  thereby 
win  them.  But  even  if  he  does  not  win  them 
religiously,  he  will  have  fulfilled  the  injunction  to 
do  good  unto  all  men. 

3.  A  third  sphere  in  zvhich  the  pastor  will 
function  beyond  his  pastorate  is  in  the  realm  of 
civic  reforms.  Here  extremes  are  easy  and  must 
be  avoided.  At  one  extreme  is  the  preacher  who 
because  of  a  perverted  notion  of  the  sacredness  of 
his  office  refuses  to -take  any  part  in  a  general 
citizens’  movement  for  the  reform  of  moral  or  so¬ 
cial  conditions.  At  the  other  extreme  is  the  man 
who  seems  to  regard  himself  a  kind  of  self-ap¬ 
pointed  detective  to  discover,  expose  and  reform 


220 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


whatever  delinquents  may  be  lurking  in  the  com¬ 
munity.  The  former  forfeits  the  respect  of  many 
of  the  best  of  his  fellow-citizens  because  they  be¬ 
lieve  him  to  be  a  coward.  The  latter  crying 
“  wolf !  wolf !  so  often  forfeits  the  confidence  of 
thoughtful  men  on  the  ground  that  he  is  fanatic. 
Fortunately  the  preacher  is  not  under  the  necessity 
of  making  a  choice  between  these  two  extreme 
positions.  The  safe  and  proper  place  for  him  is 
between  them.  He  may  and  should  give  steady 
and  effective  aid  to  every  moral  movement  and  to 
every  step  toward  social  betterment.  While  it  is 
usually  neither  best  nor  desirable  there  may  arise 
conditions  under  which  he  should  become  the 
leader  in  such  movement.  Certainly  his  attitude 
toward  all  such  questions  should  be  such  as  to 
leave  no  doubt  about  his  views  and  such,  if  he  is 
not  to  lead  in  the  movement,  that  those  who  do 
lead  will  not  hesitate  to  call  on  him  for  service. 
His  concern  for  the  well-being  of  the  community 
at  large  should  be  so  vital  that  he  would  never  fail 
to  render  such  service  if  within  the  bounds  of  rea¬ 
son.  When  he  does  go  in  it  ought  to  be  without 
embarrassment  and  certainly  without  apology.  It 
will  probably  not  get  him  anywhere  to  be  constantly 
explaining  that  he  is  in  as  a  citizen  and  not  as  a 
preacher.  When  he  is  in,  he  is  in  and  the  people 
will  not  make  any  fine  distinctions  between  the  man 
and  the  office.  The  truth  is  the  call  to  preach  is 
commonly  regarded  by  the  people  as  so  vital  and 


THE  NON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  221 


fundamental  and  permanent  that  when  they  think 
of  a  preacher  they  are  unable  to  dissociate  the  man 
from  the  office.  Since  this  is  true  the  preacher  is 
under  special  bonds  to  so  conduct  himself,  in  these 
semi-secular  campaigns,  that  neither  the  minister 
as  a  man  nor  the  ministry  as  a  calling  shall  be 
discounted  in  the  thinking  of  the  people. 

4.  A  fourth  sphere  in  which  the  preacher  should 
function  outside  of  his  church  is  in  the  field  of 
evangelism.  A  church  should  be  dissatisfied  with 
its  pastor  if  he  has  not  sufficient  evangelistic  gift 
and  soul-winning  passion  to  make  him  willing  to 
spend  at  least  one-sixth  of  his  time  in  revival  meet¬ 
ings  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  pastorate.  And 
the  pastor  ought  to  be  dissatisfied  with  his  church 
if  it  is  not  willing  for  him  to  carry  out  such  a 
program.  A  somewhat  wide  field  of  observation 
covering  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years  has 
convinced  me  that  the  happiest,  most  harmonious, 
most  prosperous  and  most  orthodox  pastorates  have 
been  those  out  from  which  the  pastor,  with  the 
loving  consent  and  cooperation  of  his  church, 
did  a  large  amount  of  evangelistic  work  in  the 
regions  beyond. 

Such  a  program  so  far  from  hurting  the  church 
will  greatly  help  it.  It  will  demonstrate  Christ’s 
great  doctrine  of  gain  by  loss.  May  I  mention 
seven  ways  in  which  this  end  will  be  accomplished  ? 
(1)  It  will  give  the  church  wider  vision.  When 
the  pastor  goes  far  hence  to  preach  to  some  desti- 


222 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


tute  field,  the  heart  of  the  church  goes  with  him, 
and  the  people  are  led  to  realize  by  actual  practice 
that  the  field  is  the  world.  (2)  It  will  quicken  the 
spirit  of  intercession.  I  never  feel  so  irresistibly 
moved  to  pray  for  my  pastor  and  for  lost  men  out¬ 
side  my  own  small  circle  as  when  he  is  in  a  soul¬ 
winning  campaign  in  some  distant  community. 
(3)  It  will  cultivate  the  Ghristly  spirit  of  unselfish¬ 
ness.  Whatever  may  be  the  superficial  appearance 
to  the  contrary,  the  church  that  seeks  to  get  and 
keep  for  itself  is  dying  at  the  heart.  Only  the 
church  that  throws  itself  with  artless  abandon  into 
the  task  of  world  conquest  is  really  prosperous. 
Nothing  will  do  more  to  cultivate  this  spirit  of 
unselfish  service  than  for  the  church  to  send  its 
own  pastor  at  its  own  charges  to  minister  in 
destitute  places.  (4)  It  will  deepen  in  the  church 
the  passion  for  soul-winning  at  home.  It  often 
happens,  and  it  is  psychologically  to  be  expected 
that  it  should  happen,  that  when  the  pastor  returns 
from  a  distant  revival  meeting  he  finds  the  home 
church  aglow  with  evangelistic  fire  and  insisting 
upon  a  campaign  for  souls.  (5)  It  will  produce 
harmony.  Next  to  a  revival  in  its  own  midst  con¬ 
sciousness  of  a  personal  share  in  a  revival  else¬ 
where  will  make  an  atmosphere  where  bickering 
and  strife  are  not  only  not  indigenous  but  where 
they  cannot  live.  (7)  It  will  promote  orthodoxy. 
Have  you  ever  seen  a  soul-winning  church  go 
wrong  in  fundamental  doctrines  ?  A  decline  in  the 


THE  NON-OFFICIAL  FUNCTIONS  223 


evangelistic  passion  always  precedes  a  departure 
from  the  evangelical  faith.  Evangelism  at  home 
and  abroad  is  almost  an  infallible  guarantee  against 
heterodoxy. 

But  there  are  also  seven  ways  in  which  this  out¬ 
side  evangelism  will  help  the  preacher.  (1)  It 
will  afford  him  a  change  from  the  ceaseless  grind 
of  his  own  pastorate.  It  is  the  ideal  way  for  the 
pastor  to  take  a  vacation.  God  forbid  that  I  should 
seek  to  qualify  as  the  self-appointed  critic  of  my 
brethren,  but  I  have  never  understood  the  psycho¬ 
logical  process  by  which  a  preacher,  normally 
strong  physically,  could  justify  taking  a  month  or 
more  of  his  time  each  year  to  lie  around  and  vege¬ 
tate  in  some  sequestered  spot. — Doubtless  condi¬ 
tions  may  arise  once  or  twice  in  a  lifetime  when 
the  normal  preacher  will  really  need  that  sort  of 
thing.  But  the  preacher  would  in  most  cases  spend 
a  vacation  more  profitably,  both  for  himself  and 
for  the  cause,  if  he  gave  it  to  two  or  three  revival 
meetings  in  really  destitute  fields.  Usually  the 
best  and  most  needed  rest  is  found  not  in  the  cessa¬ 
tion  but  in  the  change  of  activity.  Deacon  H.  Z. 
Duke  used  to  tell  of  a  remote  rural  community 
which  had  no  religious  meetings  on  Sunday.  He 
said  to  a  man,  “  What  do  you  people  do  on  Sun¬ 
day  ?  ”  The  laconic  reply  was,  “We  jess  set  arid 
think.”  “  But,”  said  the  deacon,  “  when  you  get 
tired  thinking  what  do  you  do?  ”  “  Then  we  jess 
set,”  was  the  self-satisfied  reply.  “  Jess  setting  ”  is 


224 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


the  poorest  possible  way  for  the  normal  preacher  to 
rest.  (2)  It  will  give  him  a  deeper  appreciation 
of  his  people  at  home.  The  fact  that  his  people 
are  willing  to  sacrifice  somewhat  their  own  inter¬ 
ests  that  they  may  gratify  his  evangelistic  passion 
will  stir  in  a  chivalrous  preacher’s  heart  a  sense  of 
abiding  affectionate  appreciation  and  gratitude. 
(3)  It  will  make  him  better  satisfied  with  his  own 
field.  Intimate  touch  with  the  problems  of  other 
fields  will  lead  him  to  see  that  his  own  difficulties 
are  not  unique  and  perhaps  are  not  as  bad  as  they 
seem.  (4)  It  will  broaden  his  sympathies  and 
widen  his  sphere  of  influence.  Every  revival  meet¬ 
ing  held  puts  him  in  the  closest  spiritual  touch  with 
a  new  group  of  people  and  there  will  be  those  in 
each  such  community  whom  he  will  be  able  to  guide 
and  influence  as  long  as  they  live.  (5)  It  will  ma¬ 
terially  add  to  his  stock  of  sermon  material.  Many 
of  the  best  illustrations  the  preacher  has  grow  out 
of  observations  and  experiences  during  revival 
meetings.  (6)  It  will  deepen  his  own  spirituality 
and  stimulate  his  insight  into  the  spiritual  meaning 
of  God’s  word.  This  grows  largely  out  of  the  fact 
that  in  a  revival  meeting  more  than  at  any  other 
time  the  preacher,  feeling  his  own  helplessness,  is 
driven  to  rely  in  a  special  way  upon  the  presence 
and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  (7)  It  will  stir  in 
him  anew  the  passion  for  the  lost.  Saving  the  lost 
is  the  preacher’s  preeminent  business.  Whatever 
stimulates  him  at  this  point  is  a  blessing  indeed. 


XI 


SOME  LOWERING  SHADOWS  OF  THE 

OFFICE 

In  zveariness  and  painfulness” 

—2  Corinthians  11:  27. 

Perhaps  none  of  us  would  agree  with 
Frederick  W.  Robertson  that  shadows  con¬ 
stitute  the  predominant  element  in  the  min¬ 
ister's  life.  Yet  every  thoughtful  person  realizes 

>  s 

y'  that^the  preacher  is  beset  with  difficulties,  perplexi¬ 
ties,  sorrows  and  shadows  peculiar  to  his  office.  | 
Let  us  take  a  brief  glance  at  some  of  these  shad¬ 
ows. 

1.  The  meagre,  uncertain,  semi-mendicant 
character  of  his  support.  It  is  meagre.  Leave 
out  fifty  cities  and  the  average  salary  of  the  preach¬ 
ers  in  the  United  States  is  less  than  six  hundred 
dollars  per  year.  His  pay  is  not  far  below  the  rest 
of  the  wage-earning  world,  but  when  the  preacher 
compares  his  income  with  that  of  professional  men, 
it  seems  very  small  indeed.  For  a  concrete  case 
here  are  two  brothers.  One  a  preacher;  the  other 
a  lawyer  twenty  years  his  junior.  The  preacher  is 
confessedly  the  lawyer's  equal  in  native  ability  and 
has  had  better  literary  and  professional  training. 

The  lawyer  gets  a  retainer  fee  of  six  thousand  dol- 

225 


226 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


lars  a  year  from  one  firm  whether  he  has  a  case  in 
court  or  not.  The  preacher  at  the  lawyer’s  age 
was  receiving  the  munificent  sum  of  seven  hundred 
and  twenty  dollars  a  year. 

This  is  not  meant  to  encourage  the  too  frequent 
whine  which  the  preacher  makes  about  the  inade¬ 
quacy  of  his  pay.  The  truth  is  that  the  capable, 
trained,  consecrated  preacher  will  receive  sufficient 
compensation  to  keep  him  and  his  family  in  reason¬ 
able  comfort.  Having  this,  why  should  he  not  be 
therewith  content?  The  real  hardship  here  dis¬ 
cussed  is  not  that  the  right  sort  of  preacher  does 
not  get  a  reasonably  comfortable  living,  but  that 
there  is  no  justice  in  the  disparity  of  his  compensa¬ 
tion  and  that  of  his  brother  lawyer,  doctor,  etc. 
Every  right-minded  preacher  knows  that  in  this 
and  many  other  things  he  must  forego  his  inherent 
right  for  expediency’s  sake.  Let  the  preacher  de¬ 
cide  for  himself  if  there  is  truth  in  this  paradox*. 
Often  the  preacher  has  no  right  to  do  what  he  has 
a  right  to  do. 

Furthermore,  the  average  preacher’s  pay  is  not 
only  meagre  but  it  is  uncertain.  Other  salaried 
men  receive  their  pay  at  a  specified  time.  In  the 
majority  of  the  pastorates  the  preacher  never 
knows  just  when  he  will  receive  his.  In  fact  there 
are  many  pastorates  in  which  about  the  only  thing 
a  preacher  can  be  certain  of  is  that  he  will  never 
receive  all  that  is  promised  him.  He  makes  his 
monthly  bills  with  little  hope  that  he  shall  be  able 


SOME  LOWEEING  SHADOWS 


227 


to  meet  them  promptly  when  they  are  due  because 
it  is  reasonably  certain  that  the  church  will  not  be 
prompt  in  paying  him. 

But  the  worst  feature  about  the  preacher’s  sup¬ 
port  is  that  he  is  often  regarded  by  those  who  pro¬ 
vide  it  as  a  sort  of  semi-mendicant.  It  is  hard  to 
persuade  some  virile  men  that  a  preacher  is  not  an 
object  of  charity.  There  is,  for  example,  a  mer¬ 
chant  who  runs  on  his  books  what  he  calls  a  charity 
account.  Under  this  account  he  credits  himself 
with  his  monthly  payments  on  his  pastor’s  salary. 
This  item  appears  on  his  books  with  the  amounts 
he  contributed  to  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  and 
the  blind  Italian  with  his  monkey.  If  that  by  no 
means  unusual  attitude  to  the  preacher  does  not 
cause  his  face  to  mantle  he  has  soapsuds  in  his 
veins  and  not  blood.  Every  chivalrous,  high- 
minded  preacher  chafes,  not  so  much  because  of 
the  meagreness  and  uncertainty  of  his  salary,  but 
because  in  receiving  it  he  is  supposed  by  many  to 
assume  about  the  attitude  of  a  mendicant  friar. 
An  infidel  lawyer  once  referred  to  me  as  ‘‘  the  man 
who  makes  his  living  by  passing  the  hat.”  It 
makes  my  blood  boil  and  to  this  day  I  almost  want 
to  fight  him  every  time  I  see  him.  The  only  con¬ 
solation  I  find  in  it  is  that  his  statement  had  not  an 
atom  of  truth  in  it.  I  have  done  a  good  deal  of 
hat  passing  in  my  life,  but  it  has  always  been  for 
somebody  else  and  never  for  myself.  The  pound 
party,  the  Christmas  donations,  the  ten  per  cent. 


228 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


discount  on  dry-goods,  the  half  fare  on  railroads, 
all  have  their  origin  in  the  idea  that  the  preacher 
is  about  half  man  and  half  beggar.  All  kinds  of 
euphemistic  explanations  can  be  made  of  these 
‘‘  courtesies  to  the  preacher,  but  in  the  last  analy¬ 
sis  they  spring  from  the  yet  widespread  notion  that 
the  preacher  is  a  kind  of  modified  pauper  who  must 
be  at  least  partially  maintained  by  donations  from 
the  tender-hearted. 

2.  Another  shadow  in  the  pastor’s  life  is  found 
in  an  embarrassing  separateness.  People  will  not 
accord  the  preacher  the  same  treatment  they 
give  other  men.  In  trying  to  give  the  preacher 
a  little  better  treatment  than  they  give  to  each 
other  they  arouse  in  him  a  sickening  sense  of 
isolation  and  aloofness.  The  manly  preacher  does 
not  want  to  be  coddled ;  he  does  not  want  to  be  put 
on  a  pedestal;  he  wants  to  take  his  place  in  the 
trenches  with  the  rank  and  file ;  he  has  no  use  for 
the  Pharisee’s  prayer,  “  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not 
as  other  men.”  The  genuine  preacher  knows  and 
wants  others  to  know  that  he  has  no  sacerdotal 
accessories  that  entitle  him  to  respect  apart  from 
the  respect  due  to  any  man  of  worthy  character. 
Worldly  men  sometimes  refer  somewhat  obse¬ 
quiously  to  their  “  respect  for  the  cloth.”  The 
preacher’s  “  cloth  ”  is  no  more  entitled  to  respect 
than  that  of  the  ditch  digger.  In  both  cases  it  is 
what  is  inside  the  cloth  that  entitles  the  man  to  re¬ 
spect. 


SOME  LOWEEING  SHADOWS 


229 


I  suppose  that  nobody  ever  really  said  that  there 
•were  four  genders — masculine,  feminine,  neuter, 
and  ministerial.  If  one  might  judge,  however,  by 
the  patronizing  air  some  people  assume  to  the 
preacher  and  alas,  alas,  by  the  effeminate  bearing 
of  some  preachers  themselves,  such  a  grammatical 
distinction  could  be  successfully  justified.  If  there 
is  anything  in  the  whole  realm  of  the  genus  homo 
that  fills  a  genuine  soul  with  a  disgust  and  contempt 
beyond  words  it  is  the  ministerial  mollycoddle  who 
admits  for  a  moment  that  there  are  virile  qualities 
and  manly  functions  that  other  adult  males  may 
properly  have  and  exercise  but  which  are  foreign 
to  him. 

Phillips  Brooks  strikes  a  responsive  chord  in 
every  right-thinking  preacher’s  heart  when  he 
says :  “  I  wish  that  it  were  possible  for  one  to  speak 
to  the  laity  of  our  churches  frankly  and  freely 
about  their  treatment  of  the  clergy.  The  clergy 
are  largely  what  the  laity  make  them.  And 
though  one  may  look  wholly  without  regret  upon 
the  departure  of  that  reverence  which  seems  to 
have  clothed  the  preachers’  office  in  our  fathers’ 
days,  I  think  he  must  have  many  misgivings  about 
the  weaker  substitute  for  it,  which  in  many  in¬ 
stances  has  taken  its  place.  It  was  not  good  that 
the  minister  should  be  worshipped  and  made  an 
oracle.  It  is  still  worse  that  he  should  be  flattered 
and  made  a  pet.’’ 

3.  The  preacher  finds  a  further  shadow  in 


230 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


frequent  misinterpretation  and  misrepresenta'- 
tion.  More  than  the  man  of  any  other  call¬ 
ing  the  preacher  is  before  the  public.  His 
actions  and  his  utterances  are  scrutinized  more 
closely,  judged  more  rigorously  and  aired  more  re¬ 
lentlessly  than  those  of  any  other  man.  The  igno¬ 
rant,  the  narrow,  the  visionless  and  the  bigoted  do 
not  understand  him  because  they  are  not  capable  of 
seeing  things  from  his  viewpoint  and  they  there¬ 
fore  innocently  misinterpret  him  greatly  to  his  loss 
and  sorrow.  The  vicious,  the  self-seeking  and  the 
spiteful  do  not  want  him  to  be  understood  and 
therefore  they  maliciously  misrepresent  him. 
When  you  consider  the  mistakes  that  he  does  make 
and  add  to  them  the  multitude  attributed  to  him 
that  he  does  not  make,  it  is  really  a  wonder  that  a 
preacher  ever  gets  out  of  any  community  with  a 
decent  reputation.  But  the  masses  are  reasonably 
sane  and  intuitively  know  how  to  make  allowance 
for  ignorant  misinterpretation  on  the  one  hand  and 
malicious  misrepresentation  on  the  other. 

In  my  younger  days  I  drove  an  ox  team.  The 
team  was  slow  and  my  dog,  which  always  followed 
me,  would  relieve  the  monotony  by  frequent  excur¬ 
sions  into  the  woods  after  rabbit  or  squirrel  or 
deer.  Often  he  would  protract  his  quest  for  hours 
and  sometimes  after  stopping  my  team  to  make  a 
bootless  search  for  him,  I  would  conclude  that  I 
had  lost  my  dog,  but  after  so  long  a  time  he  would 
dash  up  with  smiling  face  and  wagging  tail  just  as 


SOME  LO WEEING  SHADOWS 


231 


if  nothing  had  happened.  After  a  few  such  expe¬ 
riences  I  learned  that  if  I  would  keep  my  team 
moving  in  the  middle  of  the  road  the  dog  would 
take  care  of  himself.  This  parable  teaches  that  if 
a  preacher  will  do  right  he  need  not  worry  about 
his  reputation  nor  stop  his  legitimate  work  to  chase 
it  and  protect  it.  Given  noble  character  and  cor¬ 
rect  conduct  reputation  will  take  care  of  itself.  My 
hearer  concedes  the  soundness  of  this  position,  but 
next  time  he  is  misinterpreted  or  misrepresented  he 
will  wince  and  flinch  and  chafe,  and  perhaps  leave 
his  task  unfinished  and  chase  off  after  his  reputa¬ 
tion  to  see  that  no  harm  comes  to  it.  Philosophize 
about  it  as  we  may,  it  must  be  admitted  that  to  be 
put  in  a  false  light  before  a  community  hurts— 
unless  indeed  one  is  a  veritable  pachyderm  as  to 
sensibilities.  But  the  preacher  should  not  nurse 
these  wounds  nor  seek  to  punish  those  who  inflict 
them.  Hoppin,  with  his  habitual  poise,  says:  “A 
minister  should  cultivate  a  large-hearted  and  loving 
patience,  which  is  like  a  sea  into  which  all  the  mis¬ 
apprehensions  and  even  enmities  of  men  shall  im¬ 
mediately  sink  and  be  forever  forgotten.”  Pun¬ 
ishing  his  enemies,  real  or  imaginary,  is  the  poorest 
business  that  ever  engaged  a  preacher’s  time  and 
talent. 

4.  Another  pastoral  shadow  is  the  frequent  un¬ 
expected  zvaywardness  and  zvorldliness  of  trusted 
members  of  his  church.  Every  good  man  in  the 
community  is  grieved  by  such  a  tragedy,  but  the 


232 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


pastor  most  of  all.  In  the  first  place,  he  realizes 
more  than  any  one  else  the  harm  that  will  come  to 
the  cause  of  Christ.  And  again,  apart  from  the 
offender’s  immediate  family,  the  pastor  has  a 
deeper  interest  in  him  and  a  keener  affection  for 
him  than  anybody  else.  Besides,  if  he  is  a  true  shep¬ 
herd  the  pastor  has  a  sense  of  personal  responsibil¬ 
ity  for  the  offender’s  conduct.  Whatever  may  be 
the  opinion  of  others  in  the  matter  of  responsibility 
the  conscientious  pastor  often  chides  himself  for 
the  waywardness  of  a  member,  saying,  If  I  had 
been  a  little  more  faithful  perhaps  this  could  not 
have  happened.”  In  the  old  geographies  was  al¬ 
ways  seen  a  picture  of  Atlas  bearing  the  world  on 
his  shoulders.  In  a  very  real  sense  the  true  pastor 
feels  himself  to  bear  some  such  relation  to  his 
church.  As  there  was  weeping  in  every  Egyptian 
home  for  the  unexpected  death  of  the  first-born,  so 
there  is  a  tear  in  every  genuine  pastor’s  heart  for 
the  worldly  and  wayward  in  his  church. 

6.  A  fifth  shadozv  attending  this  office  is  the 
responsibility  and  difficulty  of  leadership.  The 
pastor  is  not  to  lord  it  over  God’s  heritage; 
he  is  not  to  be  a  dictator,  however  benevo¬ 
lent;  he  is  not  to  be  a  boss  like  a  foreman 
over  a  bunch  of  railroad  section  hands ;  but  as  we 
have  already  seen,  the  nature  and  titles  of  his  office 
imply  the  duty  and  responsibility  of  leading  his 
V  people.  To  be  a  leader  without  being  a  boss  pre¬ 
sents  one  of  the  most  delicate  problems  in  the  pas- 


SOME  LOWEEING  SHADOWS 


233 


tor’s  experience.  Here  he  is  confronted  with  the 
problem  of  exercising  God-given  pastoral  authority 
without  becoming  offensively  dictatorial.  The 
pastor  knows  that  his  office  implies  a  certain  degree 
of  authority  in  the  church  and  yet  he  knows 
that  he  cannot  appeal  to  that  authority  to  en¬ 
force  cooperation  in  any  plan  he  may  have 
for  the  church.  Conscious  of  his  authority  he 
is  also  conscious  that  his  only  way  to  exer¬ 
cise  it  is  in  the  sweet  reasonableness  of  moral 
suasion.  Every  advance  movement  the  aggressive 
pastor  undertakes  will  be  met  with  indifference, 
with  criticism,  with  opposition.  How  to  go  for¬ 
ward  against  this  tide  and  carry  the  indifferent,  the 
critic,  the  opposer  with  him  is  the  preacher’s  pre¬ 
eminent  problem  of  leadership.  He  will  need 
suppleness,  dexterity,  agility,  firmness,  candour, 
courage,  tenderness,  severity,  perseverance  and  any 
other  virtue  that  a  beneficent  Providence  may  gra¬ 
ciously  bestow  on  him.  To  successfully  lead  a 
church  with  five  hundred  members  in  aggressive 
spiritual  activities  implies  a  versatility  of  talent  un¬ 
surpassed  by  any  of  the  captains  of  industry  or 
finance  or  militarism.  The  man  who  doubts  that 
such  a  task  is  heavy  with  trials  has  not  tried  it. 

6.  There  are  many  other  shadows  haunting  the 
pastor’s  life,  such  as  a  consciousness  of  personal 
imperfections,  stubborn  alienation  of  the  people 
from  the  pastor  and  from  one  another,  death  in  his 
congregation,  especially  of  the  wicked  and  unpre- 


234 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


pared,  financial  reverses,  domestic  scandals  or  other 
crushing  shadows  in  the  homes  of  his  people. 

But  passing  these  without  comment  let  us  con¬ 
sider  finally  his  heartrending  and  often  inexplicable 
periods  of  ministerial  barrenness.  For  the  first 
year  of  his  pastorate  new  people  and  new  condi¬ 
tions  and  new  problems  give  piquancy  and  enthusi¬ 
asm  to  his  ministry  but  during  the  second  year  the 
new  wears  off.  He  and  his  congregation  are  no 
longer  new  to  each  other  and  while  familiarity  has 
not  perhaps  bred  contempt,  it  has  dulled  the  edge 
of  former  zeal.  It  is  proverbial  among  observant 
ministers  that  the  second  year  is  usually  the  most 
trying  period  of  a  pastorate.  The  philosophy  of  it 
is  in  the  fact  that  the  relation  has  subsisted  long 
enough  for  the  superficial  novelty  to  wear  off  and 
not  long  enough  to  develop  vital  spiritual  affinities. 
This  explains  psychologically  why  the  majority  of 
pastorates  terminate  about  the  end  of  the  second 
year.  But  whether  at  this  crucial  time  or  at  some 
other  period  in  his  pastorate  the  gloom  of  fruitless 
activity  will  settle  like  a  London  fog  about  the 
preacher's  bewildered  soul  and  the  nightmare  of  a 
barren  ministry  will  hold  him  suffering  but  helpless 
in  its  grip.  Alas,  for  that  day!  For  then,  if  man 
ever  suffered,  the  true  pastor  suffers.  Self-con¬ 
demned  for  indifference  and  indolence  he  prods 
himself  into  former  activity,  but  it  brings  not  the 
old-time  joy  to  his  own  heart  nor  finds  the  old-time 
response  in  the  hearts  of  others.  The  house  is  on 


SOME  LOWEEING  SHADOWS 


235 


fire  and  he  is  constantly  running  to  and  from  the 
well  but  he  finds  no  pleasure  in  it  because  he  knows 
he  is  running  with  an  empty  bucket.  The  battle  is 
on ;  he  puts  gun  to  shoulder  and  fires  with  the  old- 
time  regularity  of  movement  and  precision  of  aim 
but  no  enemy  bites  the  dust  as  of  yore;  the  car¬ 
tridge  is  blank.  It  is  harvest  time;  with  fan  in 
hand  he  throws  the  straw  and  winnows  nothing 
but  chaff.  It  is  the  time  of  ripe  fruit;  he  opens  his 
basket  in  the  market-place — nothing  but  leaves. 
A  tempestuous  sea  overwhelms  him.  The  rocks  of 
eternal  promise  upon  which  his  feet  were  wont  to 
rest  flee  and  crumble.  He  is  wandering  in  a  desert 
and  the  heavens  are  swept  clean  of  his  North  Star, 
his  Ursa  Major  and  every  familiar  constellation. 
Thus  brooding  on  his  barrenness  he  is  soon  ob¬ 
sessed  with  an  abnormal  mental  depression.  If  he 
looks  on  a  doughnut  he  sees  nothing  but  the  hole. 
If  he  reads  the  One  Hundred  and  Sixteenth  Psalm 
he  sees  the  third  and  eleventh  verses  and  misses  the 
rest. 

Let  this  chapter  close  with  an  incident  from  the 
experience  of  a  Texas  preacher  in  one  of  his  earlier 
pastorates.  It  was  about  the  close  of  the  second 
year  and  the  preacher  was  suffering  horrible  de¬ 
pression  on  account  of  what  he  conceived  to  be  a 
barren  ministry.  On  Sunday  morning  he  preached 
a  doleful  sermon  and  at  its  conclusion  spoke  about 
as  follows: 

‘‘  Brethren,  I  think  I  ought  to  resign  my  pasto- 


236 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


rate.  I  am  doing  no  good.  I  remind  myself  of 
the  man  in  the  Old  Testament  whose  axe  fell  off 
the  handle  into  the  creek.  My  work  here  is  about 
as  profitable  as  his  would  have  been  if  he  had  gone 
about  the  forest  beating  on  the  trees  with  his  axe- 
handle.  I  think  I  ought  to  quit  and  go  somewhere 
else.’' 

When  the  congregation  had  been  dismissed  a 
brilliant  and  pious  but  somewhat  eccentric  old 
bachelor  approached  the  young  Jeremiah  and  said: 

Pastor,  did  you  say  the  young  man  lost  his  axe  ?  ” 

“  Yes,”  answered  the  pastor  mournfully. 

‘‘Well,  what  did  he  do  when  he  lost  his  axe? 
Did  he  leave  the  forest  and  go  off  to  another  un¬ 
suspecting  grove  of  trees  and  begin  beating  on 
them  with  his  axe-handle  ?  ” 

“  No,”  said  the  preacher. 

“  Well,  what  did  he  do?  ”  pressed  the  benevolent 
inquisitor. 

The  preacher,  with  a  tear  and  a  flash  of  hope 
starting  simultaneously  in  his  eye,  answered,  “  He 
went  back  where  he  lost  it  and  got  it.” 

“  I  think,”  said  the  kindly  critic,  “  that  my  pas¬ 
tor  better  go  back  to  the  spot  where  he  lost  his  axe 
and  get  it.” 

Full  many  a  preacher  has  lost  his  power  who 
could  easily  regain  it,  if  he  would  go  back  to  the 
time  and  the  place  where  he  lost  it  and  rectify  the 
wrong  that  caused  him  to  lose  it. 

May  the  surrendered  heart  and  the  spirit’s 


SOME  LOWEEING  SHADOWS 


237 


anointing  cause  the  lost  axe  to  swim  for  every  dis¬ 
couraged  preacher.  May  the  Lord  give  us  power. 

The  best  remedy  for  this  shadow  of  conscious 
imperfection  is  that  one  shall  be  the  right  sort  of 
preacher.  If  a  man  will  be  a  true  shepherd  the 
shadows  will  come,  but  they  will  not  discourage. 
If  ministerial  shadows  are  to  be  illuminated,  the 
preacher  must  furnish  a  forward-looking,  an  up¬ 
ward-looking  and  an  outward-looking  ministry. 

The  pathetic  call  of  our  churches  is  for  shep¬ 
herds; — shepherds,  not  brilliant  spellbinding  pul¬ 
piteers  ;  shepherds,  not  skillful  diplomatic  ecclesias¬ 
tical  engineers;  shepherds,  not  adept  and  tactful 
church  financiers ;  shepherds,  not  partisan  proselyt¬ 
ing  buccaneers;  shepherds,  not  egotistic,  self-seek¬ 
ing  privateers;  shepherds,  not  cold-blooded  logical 
doctrinaires. 

Our  Preeminent  Need  is 

An  unselfish,  sacrificial  spirit-filled  ministry;  not 
a  self-seeking,  ease-loving,  worldly-minded  minis¬ 
try;  a  pure,  holy,  spiritual  ministry;  not  a  gross 
carnal  sensual  ministry;  a  liberal,  broad,  bountiful 
ministry ;  not  a  niggardly  parsimonious  sordid  min¬ 
istry;  a  vigorous,  forceful,  efficient  ministry;  not 
a  flabby,  feeble,  flat-minded  ministry;  a  strong, 
valiant,  sturdy  ministry;  not  a  weak,  flaccid,  limp 
ministry;  a  firm,  dignified,  stalwart  ministry;  not 
a  stale,  languid,  insipid  ministry;  a  fertile,  fruitful, 
prolific  ministry;  not  a  lean,  barren,  sterile  minis- 


238 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


try;  a  keen,  effective,  diversified  ministry;  not  a 
spiritless,  pointless,  monotonous  ministry;  a  resili¬ 
ent,  buoyant,  fervent  ministry ;  not  a  heavy,  prosy, 
frigid  ministry;  a  piquant,  seasoned,  animated  min¬ 
istry;  not  a  tasteless,  vapid,  lifeless  ministry;  a 
virile,  masterful,  compelling  ministry;  not  a  va¬ 
cant,  void,  vacuous  ministry;  a  hardy,  bold,  dar¬ 
ing  ministry;  not  a  hothouse,  trembling,  cringing 
ministry;  a  gentle,  meek,  tender  ministry;  not  a 
vitriolic,  vituperative,  vindictive  ministry;  a  sane, 
steady,  genuine  ministry;  not  a  sensational,  spec¬ 
tacular,  meteoric  ministry;  a  modest,  unassuming, 
humble  ministry;  not  a  pretentious,  pompous,  os¬ 
tentatious  ministry ;  an  alert,  wide-awake,  animated 
ministry ;  not  a  lethargic,  comatose,  moribund  min¬ 
istry. 


XII 


SOME  INSIDIOUS  SNARES  OF  THE 

OFFICE 

Plee  also  youthful  lusts.” — 3  Timothy  2:  22. 


The  layman,  thinking  superficially,  believes 
that  the  preacher  is  practically  free  from 
temptation.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
there  are  forms  of  temptation  that  beset  other  men 
from  which  the  preacher  is  at  least  partially  ex¬ 
empt.  But  it  is  also  true  that  the  very  nature  of 
the  preacher's  office  implies  certain  snares  of  whose 
seductive  allurements  the  average  layman  knows 
little.  In  this  lecture  we  will  discuss  some  of  these 
ministerial  snares. 

1.  The  first  is  the  snare  of  Indolence,  In  most 
occupations  the  employer  can  tabulate  a  man's 
work  and  tell  how  much  he  has  done  each  day  and 
make  a  fairly  accurate  estimate  of  how  much  time 
he  has  put  in  on  his  job.  Not  so  with  the  preacher. 
His  congregation  cannot  tell,  neither  can  he  with 
any  degree  of  accuracy,  how  much  time  he  used  in 
the  preparation  of  a  given  sermon.  He  can  tell 
how  much  time  he  took  for  the  physical  act  of 
writing  the  sermon,  but  he  cannot  tell  how  much 
time  in  reading,  meditation  and  prayer  it  took  to 

239 


240 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


grow  it.  The  fact  that  his  employers  cannot  tell 
how  much  time  he  works  sets  a  snare  for  his  hu¬ 
man  frailty  tempting  him  not  to  work.  He  can 
tell,  and  perhaps  some  of  his  employers  can  tell, 
how  many  hours  daily  he  spends  in  his  study,  but 
neither  he  nor  they  can  tell  whether  those  hours 
have  been  fully  employed  with  things  pertinent  to 
his  task.  In  those  hours  in  his  study  he  reads 
many  books,  has  many  dreams  and  sees  many 
visions,  but  have  all  those  books  and  dreams  and 
visions  been  of  a  type  calculated  to  forward  his 
work?  Perhaps  more  than  any  other  employed 
man  the  preacher  has  an  opportunity  to  waste  time 
unrebuked.  With  many  the  opportunity  is  shame¬ 
fully  utilized.  The  average  preacher  wastes  more 
time  than  he  works  at  his  job.  I  speak  both  from 
experience  and  observation.  I  do  not  mean  that 
he  is  idle  more  time  than  he  is  occupied,  though 
there  is  some  room  for  talk  at  that  point.  What  I 
do  mean  is  that  he  allows  himself  to  be  drawn  into 
a  lot  of  petty,  Lilliputian  performances  that  are  of 
no  value.  If  the  twentieth  century  preacher  will 
turn  aside  from  trivialities  and  inconsequentialities 
and  adopt  Paul’s  motto,  ‘‘  This  one  thing  I  do,” 
and  if  he  will  whip  himself  out  of  his  ease-loving 
indolence,  joining  with  Paul  in  “  labouring  night 
and  day,”  he  will  always  be  in  demand  and  his  ac¬ 
tivities  will  be  surprisingly  fruitful. 

2.  Jealousy.  It  is  a  humiliating  confession  but 
observation  forces  me  to  the  conclusion  that  except 


SOME  INSIDIOUS  SNAKES 


241 


physicians,  preachers  are  more  given  to  jealousy 
than  men  of  any  other  calling.  Christ’s  forerun¬ 
ner  seems  free  from  it,  for  we  learn  of  his  rejoic¬ 
ing  because  of  his  own  decrease  and  another’s  in¬ 
crease,  but  His  apostles  seem  to  have  had  their 
share  of  it,  since  we  have  instances  of  their  un¬ 
blushing  competition  for  chief  seats  and  the  privi¬ 
lege  of  being  called  the  greatest  even  on  the  most 
sacred  occasions.  That  good  men  could  be  subject 
to  such  a  foible  cannot  be  easily  explained.  I  have 
never  heard  a  preacher  admit  that  there  was  even 
a  semblance  of  it  in  his  breast,  but  often  those  who 
most  stoutly  disclaim  it  give  evidence  of  its  present 
existence.  Nothing  is  more  insidious  than  minis¬ 
terial  jealousy  and  no  refined  frailty  more  despi¬ 
cable  and  none  more  fatal  ultimately  to  both  happi¬ 
ness  and  usefulness.  Cain,  Joseph’s  brethren,  Saul 
and  Haman  are  outstanding  illustrations  of  the 
direful  results  of  jealousy  cherished  in  the  heart. 
Its  ruinous  effect  may  not  be  in  every  case  so  spec¬ 
tacular  as  in  the  cases  cited  but  it  will  be  none  the 
less  certain. 

3.  Autocracy.  Peter  exhorts  the  elders,  ‘‘  Tend 
the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you,  exercising 
the  oversight  not  of  constraint  but  willingly,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  will  of  God ;  nor  yet  for  filthy  lucre 
but  of  a  ready  mind  neither  as  lording  it  over  the 
charge  allotted  to  you,  but  making  yourselves  en- 
samples  of  the  flock.”  Clerical  refusal  to  heed  the 
injunction  not  to  tyrannize  over  the  church  has 


242 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


wrought  great  havoc  in  the  world.  The  insidious, 
inch-by-inch  progress  of  this  tendency  toward 
clerical  tyranny  culminated  in  the  papal  hierarchy 
and  all  its  blight  and  tragedy.  Dr.  Jefferson  brings 
a  strong  but  deserved  indictment  against  it  when 
he  says:  “What  is  the  story  of  a  thousand  years 
of  church  history  but  the  tragic  narrative  of  how 
the  ministers  of  Christ  little  by  little  compacted 
themselves  into  a  hierarchy  which  became  at  last 
the  most  blighting  and  intolerable  despotism  that 
the  world  has  ever  known?  The  tyranny  of  the 
mediaeval  church  was  the  tyranny  of  clergymen. 
Laymen  were  crowded  out  of  the  place  appointed 
them  by  the  church’s  founder.  Reduced  to  mere 
spectators  they  had  no  voice  whatever  in  the  gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  church,  all  authority  being  gath¬ 
ered  up  into  the  hands  of  ecclesiastics,  who,  rising 
rank  above  rank,  formed  a  compact  organization 
culminating  in  one  supreme  head  who  claimed  au¬ 
thority  transcending  that  of  the  mightiest  of  the 
Caesars,  and  whose  agents,  distributed  throughout 
the  world,  lorded  it  over  the  consciences  of  men, 
gathering  into  their  clutches  all  the  kingdoms  of 
life.  It  is  the  supreme  tragedy  of  Christian  his¬ 
tory  that  this  ecclesiastical  passion  for  power  in  the 
mediaeval  church  brought  a  disgrace  upon  Christi¬ 
anity  from  which  it  will  not  recover  for  another 
thousand  years.  The  whole  world  suffers  to-day 
because  of  what  mediaeval  clergymen  did.  The 
cause  of  Christ  is  hampered  because  of  the  preju- 


SOME  INSIDIOUS  SN^  EES 


243 


dice  planted  in  the  human  heart  by  the  imperious 
and  high-handed  policy  of  the  ambitious  leaders  of 
the  Church  of  Rome.’' 

But  while  this  tendency  to  ministerial  autocracy 
has  had  its  most  obnoxious  efflorescence  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  the  preacher  of  every  denomina¬ 
tion,  even  the  most  democratic  in  government,  has 
his  ever-present  temptation  to  the  unwarranted  as¬ 
sumption  of  power.  It  may  help  us  to  reenforce 
ourselves  against  this  trend  if  we  analyze  the  situa¬ 
tion  and  point  out  some  things  in  the  pastoral  office 
that  have  a  tendency  to  make  the  preacher  auto¬ 
cratic,  domineering  and  overbearing. 

(1)  The  very  nature  of  his  office.  He  holds  the 
highest  office.  He  is  constantly  reminded  of  this 
fact,  especially  by  the  laymen.  It  is  easy  for  him 
to  conclude  that  one  holding  such  an  exalted  office 
should  be  granted  extraordinary  authority.  Since 
he  is  a  shepherd  and  the  members  of  his  congrega¬ 
tion  are  only  sheep,  it  is  right  that  he  should  do 
their  thinking — should  manipulate  and  control 
them.  Thus  he  abuses  the  beautiful  shepherd 
metaphor  to  exalt  himself  and  to  assume  preroga¬ 
tives  expressly  forbidden  in  the  word  of  God. 

(2)  The  nature  of  the  work.  In  no  other  call¬ 
ing  is  a  man  quite  so  independent  of  human  author¬ 
ity.  In  the  matters  of  ordering  his  time  and 
choosing  his  tasks  he  is  more  than  any  other  man 

monarch  of  all  he  surveys.”  He  may  write  or 
read  or  visit,  or  he  may  do  all  these  or  neither  just 


244 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


as  he  likes,  and  there  is  no  one  to  say  him  nay.  If 
he  desires  to  miss  a  preaching  appointment  now 
and  then  or  omit  any  other  pastoral  duty  he  does 
so  without  so  much  as  saying  “  by  your  leave  ”  to 
anybody.  Compared  to  other  callings,  what  a 
large  liberty  is  accorded  the  preacher  in  the  matter 
of  how  and  when  he  shall  do  his  work.  This  com¬ 
parative  immunity  from  human  surveillance  has  its 
inevitable  tendency  to  develop  the  lordly  spirit. 
Happy  the  man  who  can  and  will  use  this  liberty 
without  abusing  it. 

(3)  His  social  prestige.  In  whatever  social 
functions  the  minister  may  figure  there  is  a  homage 
paid  him  not  accorded  to  other  men.  His  official 
position  gives  him  a  social  prestige  which  is  often 
far  in  excess  of  what  his  natural  qualifications 
would  justify.  There  is  a  constant  danger  that 
this  “  burning  of  incense  ”  before  the  minister  shall 
develop  in  him  an  unwarranted  sense  of  superiority 
and  lead  him  to  expect  and  ultimately  demand  trib¬ 
ute  which  he  has  no  right  to  levy. 

(4)  His  free  hand  in  eliciting,  combining  and 
directing  the  activities  of  the  church.  The  right- 
thinking  minister  covets  the  cooperation  of  his 
people  in  mapping  out  and  executing  the  program 
of  the  church  but  too  often  they  are  busy  about 
other  things  and  gladly  give  the  pastor  carte 
blanche  here.  Too  many  take  the  view  of  the  dea¬ 
con  who  when  called  on  by  the  pastor  to  lead  in 
prayer,  said:  ‘‘  Pray  yourself;  we  pay  you  for  it.” 


SOME  INSIDIOUS  SNAEES 


246 


This  habit  of  turning  everything  over  to  the 
preacher — the  product  of  indolence  or  indifference 
or  worldliness — cultivates  in  the  preacher  the  un¬ 
happy  notion  that  the  church  is  his  personal  prop¬ 
erty.  The  New  Testament  indeed  makes  him  a 
leader  and  an  overseer,  but  the  church’s  unscrip- 
tural  habit  of  leaving  everything  in  his  hands  too 
often  makes  him  a  dictator  and  a  boss.  The  result 
is  that  he  too  easily  comes  to  regard  his  personal 
interest  and  the  interest  of  the  church  as  one  and 
the  same-— when  they  are  perhaps  very  different. 
Very  often  the  preacher  accuses  members  of  his 
congregation  of  opposing  the  church  when  they  are 
only  protesting  against  some  vagary  of  his. 

4.  A  mild  form  of  hypocrisy.  Before  elabo¬ 
rating  this  point  let  me  say  with  emphasis  that  in 
my  judgment  the  preacher  is  the  most  transpar¬ 
ently  frank,  sincere,  ingenuous  of  all  professional 
men.  But  he  is  all  of  that  in  spite  of  many  temp¬ 
tations  to  be  otherwise. 

The  first  cause  of  an  undertow  in  this  direction 
is  that  the  people  have  a  tendency  to  apotheosize 
him  , — to  put  him  on  a  pedestal  above  his  fellow- 
men.  Since  the  people  seem  determined  to  posit 
him  in  this  sphere  of  mental  or  moral  or  official 
superiority  he  is  constantly  beset  with  the  tempta¬ 
tion  to  play  the  part.  Critical  analysis  of  his  inner 
life  reveals  to  him  the  fact  that  he  is  a  man  like 
other  men,  subject  to  like  passions  with  them.  But 
the  people  insist  on  believing  that  because  he  is  a 


246 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


preacher  he  is  essentially  a  man  of  loftier  charac¬ 
ter,  deeper  consecration,  more  sacrificial  spirit  than 
other  men,  and  he  is  tempted  to  humour  their  too 
high  estimate  of  the  difference  between  himself  and 
others.  When  Paul  and  Barnabas  preached  in 
Lystra  the  people  called  Paul  Jupiter  and  Barnabas 
Mercury  and  the  priest  of  Jupiter  would  have  sac¬ 
rificed  oxen  and  garlands  to  them  as  to  gods,  but 
the  manly  preachers  vehemently  forbade  it.  Would 
that  every  preacher  had  sense  and  grace  to  meet 
every  such  sycophantic  tendency  with  equally  can¬ 
did  protest.  It  will  pay  the  preacher  to  tear  from 
his  brow  all  the  garlands  that  he  knows  he  does  not 
deserve  to  wear,  it  matters  not  how  sincerely  they 
may  have  been  placed  there.  What  he  would  lose 
in  servile  flattery  and  popular  adulation  he  would 
gain  in  rugged  self-respect. 

The  second  tendency  to  a  mild  form  of  hypoc¬ 
risy  grows  out  of  the  preacher’s  desire  to  secure 
and  maintain  the  good-will  of  his  people.  This 
may  and  usually  does  spring  from  both  a  selfish 
and  an  altruistic  motive.  If  he  does  not  maintain 
the  good-will  of  his  people  he  cannot  retain  his  po¬ 
sition.  It  is  equally  true  that  if  he  does  not  com¬ 
mand  the  good-will  of  his  people  he  cannot  do 
them  any  good.  So  on  both  the  bad  and  the  good 
side  of  his  nature  he  is  tempted  to  play  a  little  poli¬ 
tics,  to  deal  out  some  complimentary  platitudes  be¬ 
yond  justifying  facts — to  profess  an  affection,  a 
confidence,  an  appreciation  not  quite  real.  Let  us 


SOME  mSIDIOUS  SNAKES 


247 


not  forget,  however,  that  being  a  gentleman  and 
being  a  hypocrite  are  not  quite  synonymous.  Pre¬ 
ferring  to  say  pleasant  things  does  not  imply  hy¬ 
pocrisy  any  more  than  choosing  to  say  disagreeable 
things  implies  sincerity.  Every  man,  and  especially 
every  preacher,  is  bound  to  dispense  all  the  pleasure 
he  can  consistent  with  truth  and  duty. 

5.  An  excessive  sentimentalism.  Every  worthy 
character  is  seasoned  with  a  good  measure  of  sen¬ 
timentalism,  but  in  a  sturdy,  stalwart  man  it  is 
never  predominant  and  should  never  be  prominent. 
The  very  nature  of  his  task  dealing  largely  with 
the  will  and  the  emotions  tempts  the  preacher  to 
abnormal  sentimentality.  The  ardent  exclama¬ 
tions,  the  per  fervid  interjections,  the  tear-watered 
expostulations,  the  sniffing  little  anecdote  of 
doubtful  authenticity,’'  and  other  humid  literary 
exhalations  by  which  the  preacher  seeks  to  work  up 
the  feelings  of  his  audience  often  fill  the  worka¬ 
day  man  out  in  the  crowd  with  secret  disgust.  An 
Episcopal  layman,  editor  of  the  Bellman  (Minne¬ 
apolis),  making  no  secret  of  his  nausea,  inquires, 
“  Where  do  ministers  get  all  these  incidents  of 
sanctimonious  drooling?  Is  this  sort  of  thing  a 
part  of  the  curriculum  in  theological  seminaries, 
or  does  there  exist  a  Bureau  for  the  Dissemination 
of  Personal  Religious  Anecdotes  such  as  there  is 
for  supplying  funny  stories  for  after-dinner  speak¬ 
ers?  The  touching  story  of  the  ‘  great  merchant  ’ 
who  condescends  to  talk  religion  to  one  of  his 


248 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


humblest  clerks  or  that  of  the  prominent  lawyer 
who  in  the  midst  of  his  plea  turns  aside  with 
patronizing  ostentation  to  acknowledge  his  belief 
in  the  Deity,  or  that  ‘  illustrious  statesman  ’  who  is 
never  too  busy  to  wrestle  in  prayer  so  that  any  one 
who  is  passing  can  make  a  note  of  it.  These  and 
hundreds  more  of  like  tenor  serve  to  elucidate  the 
discourse  of  a  certain  type  of  clergymen.  If  he 
could  by  any  sort  of  possibility  know  how  these 
examples  of  business  piety  which  he  considers  so 
laudable  affect  the  layman,  or  knowing  it  could 
possibly  understand  how  these  things  cause  real 
men  to  fidget  and  squirm  and  swear  inwardly  he 
might  learn  to  reserve  these  nauseating  anecdotes 
for  exclusive  use  among  those  less  sophisticated 
in  the  ways  of  the  world.’’  Even  though  a  little 
censorious  is  he  not  doing  the  preacher  a  good  turn 
in  calling  his  attention  to  a  vei*y  prevalent  fault? 
Pathetic  anecdotes,  emotional  illustrations,  and 
pious  ejaculations  repel  rather  than  attract  the 
twentieth  century  layman.  He  both  needs  and 
wants  some  solid  food.  This  does  not  mean  that 
even  the  big  layman  does  not  need  to  have  his 
feelings  stirred.  It  does  mean,  however,  that  the 
gushy,  frothy,  effusive,  historical  (?)  incident  by 
which  the  preacher  often  seeks  to  accomplish  this 
end  is  capable  of  arousing  no  higher  emotion  than 
that  of  disgust. 

6.  Despondency.  When  the  modern  preacher 
considers  Elijah  and  Jonah  he  counts  himself  in 


SOME  INSIDIOUS  SNARES 


249 


direct  line  of  prophetic  if  not  apostolic  succession. 
The  gourd  vine  and  the  juniper  tree  have  loomed 
large  in  the  experience  of  the  average  preacher. 
This  evil  spirit  seems  native  to  every  land  and  for 
it  there  is  a  name  in  every  language.  How  uni¬ 
versal  and  yet  how  foolish  and  even  sinful  is  de¬ 
spondency.  When  these  fits  are  on  him  the  preacher 
is  oversensitive  and  feels  himself  slighted  and 
neglected.  He  is  sure  that  his  talents  are  under¬ 
estimated  and  his  achievements  not  appreciated. 
He  is  halting  between  resigning  his  pastorate  and 
committing  suicide.  What  is  the  cause  of  this 
strange  undertow  ?  Sometimes  it  is  indigestion  or 
other  physical  disorder,  sometimes  it  is  an  over¬ 
strained  nervous  system;  sometimes  it  is  a  selfish 
overestimate  of  his  own  merit;  sometimes  it  is 
spiritual  backsliding.  Whatever  the  cause  its  fears 
and  misgivings  are  usually  imaginary  and  steal 
away  as  silently  and  unexpectedly  as  they  came, 
leaving  no  scars. 

Hoping  that  it  may  hearten  some  despondent 
preacher  let  me  quote  a  few  words  from  Marcus 
Dods  in  his  diary  for  March  8,  1860.  He  says: 
“  No  day  passes  without  strong  temptation  to  give 
up  the  work — the  temptation  appeals  to  me  on  the 
ground  that  I  am  not  fitted  for  pastoral  work; 
writing  sermons  is  often  the  hardest  labour  for  me, 
visiting  is  terrible.  I  often  stand  before  a  door 
unable  to  ring  or  knock — sometimes  I  have  gone 
away  without  entering.  A  lowness  of  spirit  that 


250 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


costs  me  a  great  deal  to  throw  off  is  the  consequence 
of  this,  and  a  real  doubt  whether  it  would  not  be 
better  for  myself  and  all  whom  it  may  concern 
that  I  should  at  once  look  for  some  work  that  I 
could  overtake.”  If  my  preacher  friend  is  saying 
Marcus  Dods  is  writing  my  biography  ”  let  him 
console  himself  with  the  further  reflection  that  this 
same  despondent  Marcus  Dods  became  a  great  col¬ 
lege  president  and  one  of  the  foremost  preachers 
and  scholars  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Brother, 
if  the  Lord  has  put  you  into  this  ministry,  don’t 
quit.  Things  will  get  better  further  on. 

7.  Narrowness,  The  man  was  doubtless  slan¬ 
dered  of  whom  it  was  told  that  he  prayed,  ‘‘  Lord, 
bless  me  and  my  wife,  my  son  John  and  his  wife, 
us  four  and  no  more.”  But  some  of  us  are  headed 
very  decidedly  in  that  direction.  What  greater 
blight  could  befall  a  preacher  than  that  he  should 
be  narrow,  short-sighed,  dim-eyed?  How  lavish 
God  is  when  He  blesses  a  man  with  the  seeing  eye. 
They  say  that  a  cat  can  look  at  a  king.  They  tell 
the  truth  but  a  cat  cannot  see  a  king.  It  may  see 
his  crown  and  his  royal  robe  and  his  waving  sceptre 
and  all  the  physical  appointments  of  kingship, — 
but  it  cannot  see  the  inner  qualities  of  chivalry  and 
patriotism  and  altruism  essential  to  the  making  of 
a  king.  No  man  is  really  qualified  to  preach  whose 
power  to  see  and  apprehend  is  limited  to  his 
physical  senses.  Elisha’s  servant  was  a  cringing 
coward  till  in  answer  to  the  prophet’s  prayer  his 


SOME  INSIDIOUS  SNAKES 


251 


eyes  were  opened  and  he  saw  the  hitherto  invisible 
hosts  of  horses  and  chariots  of  fire  filling  the  moun¬ 
tainside. 

There  are  three  classes  of  men:  those  who  see 
less  than  they  see,  those  who  see  just  what  they 
see,  and  those  who  see  more  than  they  see.  To 
which  of  these  three  groups  do  you  belong?  Your 
achievements  in  life  will  depend  largely  upon  the 
answer  to  this  question.  Three  men  stood  on  the 
northern  shore  of  the  Island  of  Cyprus  looking  to¬ 
ward  the  southern  shores  of  Asia  Minor.  One  of 
them,  John  Mark,  saw  only  privation,  hardship  and 
danger.  He  saw  less  than  he  saw.  Sergius  Paulus 
saw  a  people  and  country  somewhat  similar  to 
his  own.  He  saw  just  what  he  saw.  Paul  saw  a 
heathen  people  converted  to  Christ  with  their 
churches  and  preachers  and  glorious  kingdom  ac¬ 
tivities.  John  Mark  saw  less  than  he  saw  and,  be¬ 
coming  a  reactionary,  went  back.  Sergius  Paulus 
saw  just  what  he  saw,  and  becoming  a  conserva¬ 
tive  stayed  just  where  he  was.  Paul  saw  more 
than  he  saw,  and  becoming  a  progressive,  hastened 
into  a  boat  bound  for  Asia  Minor  that  he  might 
pull  down  to  earth  the  churches  he  had  seen  float¬ 
ing  in  the  air  above  the  cities  of  Derbe,  Lystra  and 
Iconium.  Oh,  for  an  Elisha  to  pray  for  the  open¬ 
ing  of  every  young  preacher’s  eyes  that  he  may 
have  what  Paul  called  “  the  heavenly  vision.”  A 
little,  narrow,  picayunish,  pigeon-toed  preacher  is 
an  ecclesiastical  monstrosity.  Along  with  culture 


252 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


and  spirituality  and  consecration  may  the  Lord  give 
His  preachers  the  seeing  eye. 

8.  The  snare  of  the  ''  big  IT  Humility  is  a 
jewel  wherever  found.  It  is  nowhere  more  charm¬ 
ing  than  in  the  life  of  a  minister.  In  that  life  its 
opposite  seems  most  incongruous  and  unsavoury. 
And  yet  the  preacher  seems  to  be  tempted  more 
than  most  men  to  exploit  himself.  Observation 
leads  me  to  believe  this  statement  true,  whether 
we  consider  his  private  conversations,  his  public 
utterances  or  his  printed  productions.  Many 
preachers  seem  to  have  lost  all  sense  of  ordinary 
propriety  and  natural  delicacy  to  say  nothing  of 
Christian  humility  when  they  come  to  speak  and 
write  of  their  own  achievements.  If  a  man  has 
prayed  all  night  or  read  an  unusual  number  of 
books,  or  endangered  his  health  by  zealous  re¬ 
ligious  activity,  he  need  not  advertise  the  fact.  It 
will  get  out  on  him  and  when  it  does  it  will  come 
out  in  better  odour  than  if  he  tell  it  himself.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  he  has  added  an  unusual  number 
to  the  churches,  has  raised  phenomenal  sums  of 
money  where  everybody  else  had  failed,  and  has 
solved  difficult  denominational  problems  that  had 
baffled  our  greatest  leaders,  but  the  news  would 
sound  better  if  somebody  else  discovered  and  an¬ 
nounced  it.  It  may  be  true,  but  generally  is  not, 
that  some  secular  enterprise  has  offered  him  sev¬ 
eral  times  larger  salary  if  he  will  give  up  the  min¬ 
istry  and  give  his  great  financial  genius  to  pro- 


SOME  INSIDIOUS  SNARES 


253 


moting  a  tin  whistle  factory  or  a  patent  dimmer 
for  a  Ford  car.  But  if  all  this  happened  the  re¬ 
port  of  it  will  sound  better  coming  from  the  secu¬ 
lar  enterprise  instead  of  the  preacher.  It  may  be 
further  said  that  when  such  an  offer  is  made  it  is 
far  from  complimentary  to  the  preacher.  Imagine 
a  business  man  offering  John  A.  Broadus  or  Phil¬ 
lips  Brooks  or  B.  H.  Carroll  a  job.  It  may  be  that 
the  church  and  the  people  generally  are  saying  that 
yours  is  the  most  constructive  and  fruitful  pastor¬ 
ate  that  the  church  has  ever  known.  That  is  a 
very  refreshing  piece  of  ecclesiastical  history  but  it 
does  not  look  good  over  the  pastor’s  signature. 
How  would  this  do  for  an  article  in  next  week’s 
denominational  paper: 

“  How  I  Surpassed  All  My  Predecessors 

Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in  hand  to  set 
forth  in  unblushing  detail  how  their  ministry  is 
resulting  in  more  additions,  larger  audiences,  and 
greater  collections  than  the  commonplace  labours  of 
those  who  preceded  them,  it  seemed  good  to  me 
also  to  give  an  account  of  how  in  my  various  pas¬ 
torates  I  surpassed  all  my  predecessors. 

In  my  first  pastorate  the  audiences  quadrupled 
in  three  weeks  what  they  had  been  for  six  months 
before  my  going.  In  another  pastorate  the  mission 
collections  were  twice  as  large  my  first  year  as  they 
had  been  the  year  before  I  went.  In  another  pas¬ 
torate  the  church  built  a  splendid  house  of  worship 
immediately  after  putting  me  in  the  pastoral  sad¬ 
dle.  So  remarkable  are  my  evangelistic  gifts  that 
in  one  of  my  pastorates  more  than  twenty  people 


264 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


came  forward  in  one  of  our  regular  Sunday  night 
services  when  no  meeting  was  on  to  ask  for  bap¬ 
tism.  In  another  pastorate  the  church  had  en¬ 
joyed  a  precarious  existence  for  years  under  the 
leadership  of  my  predecessors  and  after  years  of 
struggle  had  only  about  fifty  members  when  I  took 
charge.  I  remained  there  four  years  and  when  I 
left  the  church  had  a  membership  of  seven  hun¬ 
dred.” 

Now  who  will  deny  that  I  have  had  a  remark¬ 
ably  brilliant  pastoral  career  if  one  may  judge  by 
these  samples?  Surely  you  will  remove  your  san¬ 
dals  and  prostrate  yourself  before  me,  saying, 
“  Sir,  you  are  a  person  of  preeminent  importance.” 

But  sacrificing  egotism  upon  the  altar  of  the 
truth  of  history  I  must  confess  that  while  all  I 
have  said  is  true — it  is  only  half  the  truth.  The 
whole  truth  will  take  all  the  glamour  away  and 
leave  me  a  very  ordinary  individual.  The  whole 
truth  is  that  in  the  first  pastorate  there  had  been 
no  pastor  for  more  than  a  year  preceding  my  bril¬ 
liant  advent.  No  wonder  the  congregations  grew. 
In  that  pastorate  where  the  collections  made  such 
an  advance  the  church  had  before  my  going  been 
served  by  a  semi-hardshell  preacher  who  never 
took  any  collections  at  all.  It  is  not  hard  to  double 
nothing. 

In  that  pastorate  where  the  fine  house  was  built 
the  money  had  all  been  raised,  plans  adopted  and 
contract  let  under  the  ministry  of  my  predecessor. 
He  did  the  work  and  I  got  the  newspaper  pyro¬ 
technics. 


SOME  INSIDIOUS  SNARES 


255 


In  that  pastorate  where  the  score  applied  for 
baptism  at  a  regular  Sunday  night  service  I  failed 
to  tell  that  they  were  all  children  from  a  near-by 
orphans’  home,  converted  in  a  meeting  held  in  the 
home  by  another  brother,  which  meeting  I  did  not 
even  attend.  Twenty  of  the  children  wanted  to  be 
Baptists  and  ours  happened  to  be  the  nearest  church 
to  them. 

In  the  last  spectacular  instance  where  the  church 
grew  from  sixty  to  seven  hundred,  I  failed  to  state 
that  the  little  church  had  for  years  been  trying  to 
maintain  itself  in  the  remote  outskirts  of  Waco, 
where  there  was  almost  no  population,  and  about 
the  time  of  my  becoming  pastor,  had  moved  into 
town  under  the  shadow  of  Baylor  University  in 
the  heart  of  the  thickest  Baptist  population  in  the 
world.  The  growth  was  due  to  change  of  location 
and  not  to  brilliant  pastoral  leadership. 

I  have  said  these  things  for  a  twofold  purpose. 
In  the  first  place  I  want  to  comfort  my  ordinary 
compatriots  who  have  wondered  why  the  brethren’s 
pastorates  were  so  brilliant  while  theirs  were  so 
commonplace.  In  the  second  place  I  want  to  sug¬ 
gest  to  my  brilliant  brother  that  when  he  has  writ¬ 
ten  a  report  of  work,  making  self-laudatory  com¬ 
parisons  of  the  present  with  the  past,  the  best  dis¬ 
position  of  that  report  is  to  stick  it  in  the  fire. 

All  such  comparisons  are  usually  misleading  and 
always  “  odorous  ” — malodorous,  and  should  never 
be  made  by  a  self-respecting  preacher. 


XIII 


SOME  GLORIOUS  REWARDS  OF 
THE  OFFICE 

Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  the  crown!^ 

— 2  Timothy  4:  8. 

IS  it  good  to  emphasize  the  preacher’s  reward? 
May  we  not  thus  vitiate  his  work  by  appeal¬ 
ing  to  unworthy  motives?  There  are  those 
who  would  have  us  believe  that  the  preacher  ought 
not  to  consider  his  rewards,  neither  temporal  nor 
spiritual.  One  school  tells  us  that  the  preacher 
must  act  from  a  high  sense  of  duty,  another  that 
he  must  be  moved  by  a  broad  altruism  and  still 
another  that  he  must  be  constrained  by  the  impulse 
of  gratitude  and  so  on  through  the  list.  The  truth 
about  it  is  that  the  preacher  is  not  shut  up  to  one 
motive  or  set  of  motives.  He  will  probably  be 
moved  by  a  composite  force  including  the  fear  of 
punishment,  the  hope  of  reward,  gratitude,  altru¬ 
ism,  idealism  and  a  cold  sense  of  duty.  None  of 
these  are  bad,  but,  within  proper  limits,  are  alto¬ 
gether  good  and  worthy.  There  is  certainly  noth¬ 
ing  essentially  unworthy  in  the  preacher  seeking 
encouragement  from  a  consideration  of  the  re¬ 
wards  that  shall  come  to  him  as  a  result  of  the 

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SOME  GLOEIOUS  BEWAEDS 


257 


faithful  discharge  of  duty.  On  this  subject  Dr. 
C.  E.  Jefferson  truly  says:  ‘‘  In  all  His  paintings 
Jesus  leaves  no  unfinished  pictures.  If  He  paints  a 
sower  sowing  the  seed,  He  paints  also  the  harvest 
growing  golden  in  the  sun.  If  He  sketches  men 
working  in  a  vineyard,  He  sketches  them  at  even¬ 
ing  time  receiving  each  man  his  wages.^'  When 
Peter  said:  “We  have  left  all  and  followed  thee,’^ 
Jesus  encouraged  him  by  saying:  “  There  is  no 
man  that  hath  left  house,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or 
father,  or  mother,  or  wife,  or  children,  or  lands, 
for  my  sake,  and  the  Gospel’s  but  he  shall  receive 
a  hundredfold  now  in  this  time,  houses  and 
brethren,  and  sisters,  and  mothers,  and  children, 
and  lands,  with  persecution;  and  in  the  world  to 
come,  eternal  life.”  Paul  in  his  old  age  encour¬ 
aged  his  own  drooping  spirit  and  through  the  ages 
helped  millions  of  his  fellow  Christians  by  empha¬ 
sizing  the  ultimate  reward  of  faithful  service  when 
he  said:  “  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the 
time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand.  I  have  fought  a 
good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have  kept 
the  faith:  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the 
righteous  judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day:  and  not 
to  me  only,  but  unto  all  them  also  that  love  his 
appearing.”  Throughout  the  Scriptures  men  are 
appealed  to  and  urged  to  action  on  the  basis  of  the 
reward  the  action  will  bring.  So  there  seems  to 
be  no  good  reason  why  the  preacher  may  not  be 


258 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


led  to  think  gratefully  of  the  rewards  that  may 
come  in  the  course  of  his  life-work.  In  this  chap¬ 
ter  let  us  consider  some  of  these  rewards. 

1.  His  temporal  rewards, 

(a)  Financial.  As  a  rule  the  preacher  is  not 
overpaid.  In  many  cases,  particularly  in  country 
churches,  he  is  underpaid.  But  the  average 
preacher  is  not  the  starveling  that  the  brother  long 
on  statistics  proves  him  to  be.  In  the  average 
town  a  little  investigation  will  show  that  the 
preacher’s  income  is  about  equal  to  the  superinten¬ 
dent  of  the  public  schools.  He  will  have  a  pretty 
hard  time  living  on  his  income,  but  there  are  doubt¬ 
less  school  teachers  in  his  town,  and  clerks  and 
office  men  who  are  paid  no  better  than  he.  The 
statistical  brother  deceives  himself  about  the  pay 
the  preachers  get  by  overlooking  the  fact  that 
probably  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  preachers  included  in 
his  generalization  are  either  not  preaching  at  all 
and  therefore  getting  no  pay  from  the  churches, 
or  are  preaching  for  one-fourth  or  one-half  time 
churches,  and  give  from  three  to  five  days  each 
week  to  some  secular  work.  Both  these  rather 
large  classes  receive  pay  not  included  in  the 
statistician’s  estimate  of  how  much  pay  the 
preacher  gets.  Then,  too,  our  statistical  brother 
ought  to  remember  that  if  it  is  sometimes 
poor  pay  it  is  also  sometimes  poor  preach.” 
Personally  I  rejoice  in  every  step  toward  in¬ 
creasing  the  pay  of  the  preacher.  If  I  were  writ- 


SOME  GLOEIOUS  EEWAEDS 


259 


ing  on  that  subject  I  could  give  some  unanswerable 
reasons  why  it  should  be  done.  My  only  purpose 
here  is  to  show  that  there  is  not  as  much  ground 


for  pity  toward  us  preachers  as  some  people  would 
have  us  believe.  As  a  class  we  are  not  very  well 
paid.  In  most  cases  we  would  do  better  work  if 
we  were  better  paid.  But  tlie  fact  that  the  people 
appreciate  our  ministry  enough  to  feed  and  clothe 
us  and  our  families,  while  we  give  ourselves  to  it, 
is  gratifying.  That  this  support  is  rendered  volun¬ 
tarily,  as  a  rule  gladly,  and  often  at  a  sacrifice  is  to 
a  thoughtful  man  a  reward  for  his  service.  This 
reward  does  not  lie  so  much  in  the  money  paid  as 
in  the  sincere  appreciation  of  service  that  the  pay¬ 
ing  of  the  money  implies.  Whatever  may  be  said 
on  the  subject,  this  way  or  that,  it  is  certainly  in 
order  to  express  the  hope  that  we  are,  or  soon  shall 
be,  forever  delivered  from  the  whining,  dissatisfied, 
despondent,  dependent  preacher  who  is  always  on 
the  brink  of  starvation  but  never  quite  willing  to 
topple  over  the  ^precipice.  In  the  same  breath,  let 
us  venture  the  wish  that  we  may  see  no  more  of 
that  tribe  of  laymen  who  pity  and  patronize  the 
preacher  because  he  is  so  poor.  About  the  only 
piety  some  laymen  lay  claim  to  is  the  fact  that  they 
make  a  show  of  feeling  sorry  for  the  ‘‘  poor  half- 
starved  preacher”  and  on  every  possible  occasion 
wail  over  him  because  he  is  so  badly  treated.  Dear 
brother  layman,  take  notice,  from  one  who  knows, 
that  all  that  sob-stuff  about  the  preacher  and  his 


260 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


hungry  family  is  out  of  date.  Your  attitude  of 
patronizing  pity  is  as  Hamlet  said  about  another 
anachronism,  “  a  custom  more  honoured  in  the 
breach  than  in  the  observance.'’  Pray  have  done 
with  it.  No  manly  preacher  appreciates  it.  The 
preacher  does  not  want  your  pity.  He  wants  you 
to  get  in  the  game  with  him  and  join  him  in  a 
manly  effort  to  advance  the  ball.  A  preacher  with 
average  ability,  average  training,  average  piety 
and  average  consecration  will  get  at  least  an  aver¬ 
age  living  out  of  his  ministry. 

(b)  Intellectual.  The  preacher  has  the  advantage 
over  others  in  that,  more  than  men  in  any  other 
calling,  except  perhaps  a  college  professorship,  he 
has  the  opportunity  for  intellectual  pursuits. 
There  are  laymen  in  every  community  hungering 
for  knowledge  but  denied  the  opportunity  of  pur¬ 
suing  it  because  of  the  time  consumed  by  the  petty 
details  of  earning  a  living.  Such  men  would  be 
almost  willing  to  pluck  out  the  right  eye  for  the 
preacher’s  opportunity  of  living  in  the  atmosphere 
of  books.  This  layman  usually,  not  always,  makes 
more  money  than  the  preacher,  but  the  preacher 
will,  or  may  if  he  will,  make  more  man.  My  fear 
is  that  few  preachers  properly  appreciate  this 
blessing.  Have  you  ever  looked  out  through  your 
study  window  to  see  an  ambitious  young  fellow 
patiently  toiling,  digging  a  ditch  with  a  group  of 
uncongenial  companions?  What  would  he  give, 
my  brother,  for  your  opportunity  of  fellowship  with 


SOME  GLOEIOUS  EEWAEDS 


261 


the  great  men  whose  books  are  on  your  shelves, 
but  he  must  dig  the  ditch  that  wife  and  babies  may 
be  fed.  Have  you  ever  humbly  thanked  God  that 
the  work  to  which  He  has  called  you  gives  you  in 
this  respect  such  a  distinct  advantage  over  most  of 
your  fellow-men  ?  Do  you  figure  that  in  as  one  of 
your  assets  when  you  come  to  consider  the  rewards 
of  your  office? 

(c)  Social.  A  little  while  ago  a  young  preacher 
was  a  dinner  guest  in  an  elegant  home  along  with 
a  group  of  the  leading  people  of  the  community. 
During  the  social  hour,  after  dinner,  he  suddenly 
left  the  room.  His  host  found  him  on  the  back 
porch  weeping.  When  he  could  talk  he  said:  “I 
was  comparing  my  social  status  before  I  became  a 
minister  with  that  which  is  mine  to-day,  and  the 
facts  overwhelmed  me.  Before  I  was  a  minister 
my  social  environment  was  poverty,  squalor,  ig¬ 
norance  and  vice.  Since  I  became  a  minister  the 
best  social  life  is  open  to  me.  The  blessing  of  it 
melts  my  heart  with  gratitude  to  God.’’  But  it  is 
objected  that  this  is  an  exceptional  case — ^that  most 
preachers  moved  in  first-class  social  circles  before 
entering  the  ministry.  The  facts  justify  the  con¬ 
tention.  But  this  admission  does  not  alter  the  fact 
^  thatjthe  ministry  affords  social  opportunities  not 
equalled  by  any  other  calling.  The  truth  is,  that 
the  preacher’s  opportunity  for  congenial  social  life 
is  so  good  that  it  furnishes  a  constant  menace  to 
his  ministry — tempting  him  to  employ  time  in 


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purely  social  functions  that  might  be  more  profit¬ 
ably  used  elsewhere. 

(d)  Domestic.  The  family  circle  is  a  charmed 
zone.  Every  normal  man  who  has  a  well-ordered 
home  life  appreciates  it  and  is  blessed  by  it.  It  is 
the  lament  of  the  average  business  man  that  he  has 
so  little  time  with  his  family.  Here  as  elsewhere 
the  preacher  has  the  advantage.  While  other  men 
are  necessarily  away  from  home  all  day  and  often 
part  of  the  night  the  preacher  may  and  usually  does 
spend  much  of  the  daytime  at  home,  the  majority 
of  preachers  maintaining  the  private  study  in  the 
residence,  thus  enjoying  the  home  atmosphere  and 
at  the  same  time  contributing  his  part  toward  mak¬ 
ing  it  wholesome. 

Another  element  of  the  blessing  of  his  home  life 
is  that  the  preacher’s  wife  is  usually  a  woman  su¬ 
perior  to  the  average  of  her  neighbours  in  all  the 
^  higher  home  making  qualities.  If  a  young 
preacher  does  not  marry  well  it  is  his  own  fault. 
^  As  a  rule  he  has  the  pick  of  the  community  in 
which  he  lives.  Put  a  young  preacher  in  competi¬ 
tion  for  a  young  woman’s  affection  with  young 
men  of  equal  ability  and  attractiveness  in  other 
callings,  and  in  three  cases  out  of  four  the  preacher 
will  walk  off  with  the  prize.  After  writing  this 
last  sentence  I  read  it  to  a  young  lady  in  my  office 
and  asked  her  if  she  believed  it  to  be  true  and  if  so 
why  it  is  true.  She  said  she  believed  it  to  be  true 
^  and  that\the  reason  for  it  is  that  the  very  nature 


SOME  GLOEIOUS  EEWAEDS 


263 


of  the  young  preacher’s  calling  implies  that  his 
character  has  been  tested  and  approved.  The  very 
fact  that  he  has  been  ordained  a  preacher  is  a 
pretty  safe  guarantee  that  he  is  a  man  of  good 
record,  stable  character  and  high  ideals.  Another 
reason  not  mentioned  by  her  is  that  as  a  rule  a 
young  woman  is  altruistic  in  her  thinking  and  she 
feels  that  to  marry  a  preacher  would  give  her  the 
best  opportunity  of  serving  others.  Whatever  the 
philosophy  of  it,  the  fact  remains  that  as  a  rule 
the  preacher’s  home  is  blessed  above  others  with  a 
woman  peculiarly  qualified  for  the  high  office  of 
wifehood  and  motherhood  and  home  maker. 

A  Roman  Catholic  author  says,  “  Be  it  ours, 
therefore,  to  love  the  people.  Is  it  not  to  that  end 
that  we  have  no  family  ties?  Yes,  I  invoke  pity 
for  the  people;  pity  for  their  sufferings,  their 
miseries,  their  prejudices,  their  deplorable  subjec¬ 
tion  to  popular  opinion,  their  ignorance,  their  er¬ 
rors.  Let  us,  at  least,  try  to  do  them  good — to 
save  them.  Therein  lies  our  happiness;  we  shall 
never  have  any  other.  All  other  sources  are  closed 
to  us ;  there  is  the  well-spring  of  the  most  delectable 
joys.  Apart  from  charity,  what  remains?  Vanity, 
unprofitableness,  bitterness,  misery,  nothingness.” 
Hear  his  wail  ‘‘  We  shall  never  have  any  other!  ” 

Commenting  on  this  utterance,  Hoppin  says: 
“  These  words,  though  evidently  the  words  of  a 
noble  man,  have  a  sad  tone,  as  if  the  ‘  bitterness 
and  nothingness  ’  had  been  experienced  because  the 


264 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


writer^s  heart  had  been  closed,  by  the  unscriptural 
imposition  of  celibacy,  to  domestic  joys  and  af¬ 
fections;  and  the  argument  itself  by  no  means  holds 
good,  that  because  a  man  has  no  wife  and  children 
to  love,  he  will  more  readily  love  the  people,  since 
he  has  nothing  else  to  love.  But  he  has  something 
else  to  love;  that  is,  himself,  or  a  phantom  of  the 
church  which  he  has  created,  and  which  is  another 
name,  in  many  instances,  for  a  sanctified  love  of 
power,  an  ambition  to  embody  in  himself  the 
Church’s  power.  He  who  happily  sustains  the 
married  relation  is  in  the  best  school  on  earth  to 
learn  unselfishness — the  unselfish  love  of  all.  He 
is  drawn  out  of  himself;  he  must  think  of  others; 
he  cannot  be  absorbed  in  his  own  plans;  his  best 
affections  are  constantly  moved  upon,  and  they 
have  no  time  to  stagnate.” 

De  Tocqueville,  that  astute  French  political 
philosopher,  says:  “I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
the  women  give  to  every  nation  a  moral  tempera¬ 
ment  which  shows  itself  in  politics.  A  hundred 
times  have  I  seen  weak  men  show  real  public  vir¬ 
tue  because  they  had  by  their  sides  women  who 
supported  them,  not  by  advice  as  to  particulars, 
but  by  fortifying  their  feelings  of  duty,  and  of 
directing  their  ambition.  More  frequently,  I  must 
confess,  I  have  observed  the  domestic  influence 
gradually  transforming  a  man  naturally  generous, 
noble,  and  unselfish,  into  a  cowardly,  commonplace, 
place-hunting  self-seeker,  thinking  of  public  busi- 


SOME  GLOBIOUS  EEWAEDS 


265 


ness  only  as  a  means  of  making  himself  comfort¬ 
able,  and  this  simply  by  contact  with  a  well-con¬ 
ducted  woman,  a  faithful  wife,  an  excellent 
mother,  but  from  whose  mind  the  grand  notion  of 
public  duty  was  entirely  absent/’ 

A  distinguished  American  author  says:  The 
sympathy  of  a  true  Christian  wife  to  a  minister  in 
his  work  is  something  more  than  common  friend¬ 
ship  ;  it  is  the  loving  support  of  a  heart  true  to  the 
divine  Master  in  hours  of  human  suffering  and 
trial — in  times  when  the  spirit  of  a  strong  man 
bows  itself,  and  when  there  is  no  other  earthly 
friend  to  whom  he  would  reveal  his  mental  weak¬ 
ness  and  anguish.” 

The  author  of  the  “  Recreations  of  a  Country 
Parson,”  having  been  hindered  in  preparing  a  ser¬ 
mon  by  the  frequent  interruptions  of  his  little 
child,  says:  “  My  sermon  will  be  the  better  for  all 
these  interruptions.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it 
will  be  absolutely  good,  though  it  will  be  as  good 
as  I  can  make  it ;  but  it  will  be  better  than  it  would 
have  been  if  I  had  not  been  interrupted  at  all. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Church  meant  it  well,  but  it 
was  far  mistaken  when  it  thought  to  make  a  man  a 
better  parish  priest  by  cutting  him  off  from  do¬ 
mestic  ties,  and  quite  emancipating  him  from  all 
the  worries  of  domestic  life.  That  might  be  the 
way  to  get  men  who  would  preach  an  unpractical 
religion,  not  human  in  interest,  not  able  to  com¬ 
fort,  direct,  sustain  through  daily  cares,  tempta- 


266 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


tions,  and  sorrows.  But  for  the  preaching  which 
will  come  home  to  men’s  business  and  bosoms, 
which  will  not  appear  to  ignore  those  things  which 
must,  of  necessity,  occupy  the  greatest  part  of  an 
ordinary  mortal’s  thoughts,  commend  me  to  the 
preacher  who  has  learned  by  experience  what  are 
human  ties,  and  what  is  human  worry  ?  ” 

But  not  only  is  the  preacher’s  domestic  circle 
blessed  in  the  person  of  his  wife,  but,  the  quite 
general  impression  of  the  superficial  observer  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding,  the  preacher’s  home 
life  is  blessed  in  the  character  of  his  children.  The 
impression  that  preachers  raise  bad  boys  grows  out 
of  the  fact  that  if  a  bad  boy  does  happen  to  be  a 
preacher’s  son  everybody  in  the  county  knows  it 
and  talks  about  it,  while  if  a  man  in  any  other  call¬ 
ing  has  a  bad  boy  it  creates  no  surprise  and  there¬ 
fore  evokes  no  comment.  If  any  man  will  examine 
carefully  ‘‘  Who’s  Who  in  America,”  (a  work  giv¬ 
ing  brief  biographical  sketches  of  outstanding  men 
in  American  history)  he  will  find  that  in  propor¬ 
tion  to  numbers  preachers  have  two  sons  in  that 
list  where  men  of  any  other  calling  have  one.  Take 
almost  at  random  the  following  names  from  the 
great  world  of  achievement  in  literature,  science, 
business,  politics,  and  religion:  Joseph  Addison,  S. 
T.  Coleridge,  Wm.  Cowper,  Ben  Johnson,  Oliver 
Goldsmith,  Alfred  Tennyson,  James  Russell  Low¬ 
ell,  Christopher  Wren,  Matthew  Arnold,  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  Wm.  Hazlett,  Geo.  Bancroft, 


SOME  GLOEIOUS  REWAEDS 


267 


^  Froude,  Parkman,  Emerson,  Henry  Clay,  Edward 
Everett,  Kingsley,  Mark  Patterson,  Wm.  Stead,  F. 
B.  Morse,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  Chester  A.  Arthur, 
Levi  P.  Morton,  Grover  Cleveland,  Lorimer  of  the 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  Canon  Farrar,  A.  P.  Stanley, 
Robert  Hall,  Norman  McLeod,  R.  S.  Storrs,  Ly¬ 
man  Abbott,  H.  J.  Van  Dyke,  Marcus  Dods,  C.  H. 
Spurgeon.  Trace  their  genealogy  and  you  will  find 
that  they  are  all  ministers’  sons. 

To  come  a  little  closer  home  and  take  the  names 
of  men  personally  known  to  most  of  the  people 
who  will  read  these  lines:  B.  H.  Carroll,  R.  C. 
Buckner,  E.  Y.  Mullins,  S.  P.  Brooks,  C.  C. 
Slaughter,  L.  R.  Scarborough,  O.  S.  Lattimore, 
Fred  Freeman,  J.  M.  Carroll,  R.  H.  Coleman,  and 
so  on  ad  infinitum  are  the  sons  of  ministers. 

While  I  write  two  men  are  candidates  for 
Governor  of  my  native  state — ^both  of  them  the 
sons  of  preachers.  At  the  same  moment  two  men 
are  candidates  for  President  of  the  United  States 
— one  of  them  is  the  son  of  a  Baptist,  the  other  of 
a  Presbyterian  minister,  and  by  the  way  one  of 
these  men  is  a  Baptist  deacon,  the  other  a  Presby¬ 
terian  elder. 

More  than  most  men  the  preacher  seems  to  have 
adopted  as  the  motto  of  his  home  life  Froebel’s 
saying:  “  Let  us  live  for  the  children,”  and  he  reaps 
the  reward  of  faithfulness  at  this  vital  point.  In 
the  mouth  of  a  preacher  nothing  could  be  more 


268 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


tragic  than  the  wail  in  Canticles  1:6:“  They  have 
made  me  a  keeper  of  the  vineyards,  but  mine  own 
vineyard  have  I  not  kept.”  Occasionally  the 
preacher  is  guilty  of  the  travesty  on  personal  re¬ 
sponsibility  by  giving  himself  to  public  service  to 
the  neglect  of  the  preeminent  duty  of  rearing  his 
own  family.  There  could  be  no  greater  folly  and 
no  more  unspeakable  tragedy. 

2.  Spiritual  Rewards, 

{a)  Consciousness  of  usefulness.  In  any  calling 
a  man  worth  the  name  desires  to  be  useful.  In 
any  legitimate  calling  the  man  who  has  the  heart 
for  it  can  make  himself  a  blessing  to  the  world,  but 
it  goes  without  saying  that  the  preacher  at  this 
point  has  the  advantage  over  all  his  brothers.  In 
the  first  place  this  is  true  because  of  the  very  na¬ 
ture  of  his  work.  He  works  in  the  highest  sphere 
of  human  life.  That  man  is  indeed  a  benefactor 
who  makes  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  one 
originally  grew.  He  is  a  benefactor  who  furnishes 
food  and  clothing  for  the  human  body.  He  is  a 
benefactor  who  calls  out  and  develops  the  latent 
powers  of  the  human  mind.  But  he  is  the  highest 
benefactor  who  is  permitted  to  give  himself  to  the 
care  of  human  souls, -^who  labours  among  men  in 
the  realm  of  the  spiritual.  What  an  appeal  this 
fact  makes  for  diligence  and  tact  and  consecration. 
How  it  challenges  the  preacher  to  put  into  his  min¬ 
istry  the  best  powers  that  he  has  or  that  he  may,  by 
a  life  wholly  devoted  to  it,  acquire.  Oh !  men  of 


SOME  GLOEIOUS  EEWAEDS 


269 


God,  shepherds  of  souls,  when  we  remember  the 
exalted  task  that  is  ours  how  can  we  be  sluggards 
or  slackers  I 

But  the  preacher  is  conscious  of  his  usefulness 
not  only  because  of  the  nature  of  his  work  but  be¬ 
cause  of  gracious  results  he  is  often  permitted  to 
see  growing  out  of  his  work.  Looking  back  over 
his  life  the  faithful  minister  sees  the  fruit  of  his 
labour  in  the  many  who  have  been  led  to  Christ 
under  his  ministry ;  in  the  churches  that  have  been 
planted  and  developed  under  his  pastoral  care;  in 
communities  that  have  been,  under  his  leadership, 
lifted  to  higher  planes  of  living;  in  altruistic  move¬ 
ments  that  have  been  fostered  and  nurtured  by  his 
hand;  in  the  wayward  who  have  been  reclaimed 
and  the  weak  and  dejected  who  have  been  steadied 
and  heartened.  Such  rewards  are  worth  to  him 
more  than  gold,  yea  than  much  fine  gold. 

(&)  Yet  another  spiritual  reward  that  comes  to 
the  preacher  is  that  more  than  other  men  he  has  the 
privilege  of  living  in  a  high  and  holy  atmosphere. 
A  distinguished  lawyer  said  to  me  not  long  since: 
“  You  preachers  have  an  advantage  over  us  law¬ 
yers.  In  our  business  we  see  human  nature  at  its 
worst  while  in  yours  you  see  it  at  its  best.’’  Grant¬ 
ing  that  he  did  not  realize  how  much  of  the  bad 
side  of  human  nature  the  preacher  sees,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  there  is  truth  in  his  statement. 
More  than  other  men  the  preacher  is  associated 
with  the  best  elements  in  the  community.  Who 


270 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


can  measure  the  blessings  that  come  to  him  from 
such  associations? 

But  association  with  good  people  is  not  the  chief 
element  in  the  high  and  holy  atmosphere  in  which 
he  lives.  Far  more  potent  than  this  is  the  fact  that 
in  his  thought-world  he  deals  with  the  high  and 
holy.  The  very  nature  of  his  duties  leads  him  to 
consider  the  holiest  things.  In  his  studies  he  lives 
in  that  atmosphere.  In  his  ministrations  whether 
in  the  pulpit  or  in  pastoral  visitation  sacred  things 
are  preeminent.  If  he  even  measurably  meets  the 
demands  of  an  ideal  ministry  his  mind  is  saturated 
with  the  things  of  God.  The  truth  is  he  lives  in 
such  constant  touch  with  holy  things  that  his  great 
danger  is  that  in  his  thinking  they  shall  lose  their 
holy  aroma.  Living  in  the  atmosphere  of  these 
sacred  things  so  constantly  he  is  in  danger  of  deal¬ 
ing  with  them  in  a  purely  professional  spirit.  The 
preacher  is  in  a  bad  way  when  in  his  thinking  holy 
things  become  commonplace  and  when  the  sacred 
functions  of  his  office  are  performed  mechanically. 
I  have  known  sonie  ministers  who  seemed  to  have 
degenerated  to  that  low  level,  but  as  a  rule  the 
preacher’s  soul  is  enriched  by  the  consciousness 
that  he  is  ministering  in  holy  things  and  his  life  is 
ennobled  by  this  romantic  truth. 

(c)  But  a  third  spiritual  reward  is  that  more 
definitely  than  men  in  other  callings  the  preacher 
has  the  promise  of  the  presence  of  Jesus  as  he 
works.  “  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway  ”  is  a  promise 


SOME  GLOEIOUS  EEWARDS 


271 


made  specifically  to  the  man  who  preaches  the 
Gospel  and  performs  the  duties  of  that  high  office. 
Every  child  of  God  yearns  for  the  divine  presence 
as  he  goes  about  his  tasks.  Indeed  every  child  of 
God  may  have  a  consciousness  of  that  presence, 
but  to  none  is  the  promise  of  it  made  quite  so 
definitely  as  to  the  preacher.  Not  only  is  this  con¬ 
sciousness  of  the  presence  of  Christ  an  immeasur¬ 
able  help  to  him  in  his  work  but  it  is  a  thing  of  real 
value  in  his  life.  To  the  right  sort  of  preacher  the 
promise  of  Christ’s  presence  is  a  thing  to  be  treas¬ 
ured  among  his  most  priceless  jewels. 

{d)  Not  the  least  of  the  preacher’s  rewards  is 
in  the  fact  that  when  he  comes  to  the  end  of  the 
journey  there  will  be  a  host  of  people  who  have 
been  blessed  by  his  ministry  to  bid  him  an  affection¬ 
ate  good-night  ”  as  he  slips  into  the  shadow  that 
we  call  death,  and  a  still  larger  host  to  bid  him  a 
glad  good-morning  ”  as  he  emerges  into  the 
glorious  light  on  the  other  side. 

In  a  lonely  grave  at  the  foot  of  the  Apennines 
lies  the  body  of  a  mountain  guide.  On  a  rude 
stone  at  the  head  of  the  grave  is  the  inscription: 
‘‘  He  was  a  good  man  and  a  good  guide.”  What 
nobler  compensation  for  a  life  of  service  and  per¬ 
haps  of  sacrifice  could  a  preacher  have  than  that 
some  such  thing  should  be  said  of  him  when  he  has 
“  crossed  the  bar  ”  ? 

God  help  you,  my  young  brother,  that  you  may 
indeed  be  a  good  man  and  a  good  guide. 


XIV 


THE  BISHOP-COADJUTOR  OF 
THE  OFFICE 

Help  these  women  for  they  laboured  zvith  me 
in  the  Gospel” — Philippians  4:  3. 

OUR  Episcopal  brethren  have  an  officer 
whom  they  style  Bishop-Coadjutor/^ 
The  difference  between  the  Bishop-Co¬ 
adjutor  and  the  ordinary  assistant  to  the  Bishop  is 
that  the  latter  functions  only  in  temporalities  while 
the  Bishop-Coadjutor  officiates  in  both  temporal 
and  spiritual  matters.  The  minister’s  wife  is  the 
God-given  Bishop-Coadjutor ;  she  assists  him  both 
temporally  and  spiritually.  Since  she  performs  the 
duties  of  this  office  I  see  no  reason  why  she  should 
not  receive  the  titles.  “  Therefore  be  it  known  by 
these  presents,”  that  in  my  thinking,  every  faithful 
wife  of  a  minister  is  hereby  designated,  appointed 
and  set  apart  to  the  high  office  of  Bishop-Coadju¬ 
tor. 

Turning  back  to  a  thoroughly  serious  vein,  per¬ 
mit  me  to  say  that  I  should  count  these  lectures  in¬ 
excusably  incomplete  if  we  did  not  give  some  con¬ 
sideration  to  the  minister’s  wife  by  way,  at  once,  of 
tribute,  encouragement  and  instruction. 

272 


THE  BISHOP-COADJUTOK 


273 


Dr.  R.  C.  Burleson  was  wont  to  say  in  a  some¬ 
what  jocular  way  that  the  devil  had  a  spite  against 
preachers  and  often  paid  them  off  in  silly  or  in¬ 
competent  wives.  Like  David  when  he  averred 
that  all  men  were  liars,  I  think  the  dear  Doctor 
was  speaking  in  haste.  A  little  deliberation  would 
doubtless  have  compelled  him  to  admit  that  preach¬ 
ers,  for  the  most  part,  have  been  singularly  fortu¬ 
nate  in  their  wives.  There  are  painful  exceptions, 
to  be  sure,  but  generally  speaking  the  “  Mistress 
of  the  Manse  ’’  is  the  uncrowned  queen  among  the 
women  of  her  community.  This  is  not  the  occa¬ 
sion  to  pronounce  a  fulsome  eulogy  on  woman  in 
general  nor  the  minister's  wife  in  particular.  The 
truth  is,  though  our  writers  and  speakers  seem  not 
to  know  it,  woman  neither  needs,  nor  desires,  nor 
enjoys  that  sort  of  pabulum.  She  only  asks  op¬ 
portunity  and  encouragement  to  do  her  part  in  the 
world's  work.  Like  other  human  beings,  she  en¬ 
joys  recognition,  approval,  appreciation,  but  more 
than  most  human  beings  she  will  go  on  faithfully 
in  her  work  even  when  these  are  withheld. 

A  pulpit  committee  conferring  with  a  prospective 
pastor  asked  about  his  wife.  The  somewhat  sensi¬ 
tive  preacher  said,  “  You  are  not  thinking  of  call¬ 
ing  my  wife,  are  you?"  Whereupon  one  of  the 
committee  replied,  “  No,  we  ain’t  goin'  to  call  her, 
but  if  we  call  you  she’s  a-goin’  to  come."  Properly 
mated,  a  woman  is  always  interested  in  the  plans 
and  tasks  and  ambitions  of  her  husband.  It  is  on 


274 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


this  psychological  basis  that  the  minister’s  wife  will 
be  more  interested  in  church  work  than  other  even 
devout  women  of  the  community.  It  is  her  quasi 
official  connection  with  the  church  and  the  pastor¬ 
ate  that  justifies  the  introduction  of  this  chapter 
in  a  book  on  the  pastoral  office. 

In  these  days  much  is  being  said  about  woman 
and  her  relation  to  the  world’s  work.  The  once 
quite  prevalent  notion  that  she  is  mentally  inferior 
to  man  has  been  abandoned.  Her  capacity  and  her 
right  to  vote,  hold  office  and  perform  any  of  the 
public  functions  hitherto  discharged  exclusively  by 
men,  is  coming  to  be  quite  generally  conceded.  No 
longer  a  question  of  capacity,  the  problem  now  is 
how  far  it  is  right  and  expedient  for  her  to  go  in 
filling  public  places  and  discharging  public  and  of¬ 
ficial  functions.  The  scope  of  this  lecture  will  not 
permit  us  to  go  into  the  general  questions  of 
woman’s  rights  and  privileges  in  the  world  of 
politics  and  business.  So  far  as  the  church  is  in¬ 
volved  in  the  general  question,  the  Scriptures 
clearly  imply  if  they  do  not  specifically  teach  that 
whatever  may  be  her  capacity  or  inherent  right  it 
is  not  expedient  for  her  to  be  charged  with  official 
position  in  the  church.  This  remark  is  not  based 
wholly  upon  the  so-called  isolated  and  provincial 
statements  of  Paul  but  is  a  conclusion  drawn  from 
the  entire  trend  of  Scripture  teaching.  Whatever 
may  be  one’s  personal  opinion,  predilection  or  pref¬ 
erence,  all  must  admit  that  the  Scriptures  do  not 


THE  BISHOP- COADJUTOR 


275 


contemplate  and  certainly  do  not  provide  for  a 
woman  filling  either  of  the  two  official  positions  of 
a  New  Testament  church.  Her  place  in  the  church 
is  clearly  recognized  and  her  work  in  it  and  for  it 
definitely  approved  and  encouraged,  but  that  she  is 
to  fill  either  of  its  offices,  or  perform  the  official 
duties  thereof  is  nowhere  taught,  but  the  contrary 
clearly  implied.  Her  only  homiletical  right  to  a 
place  in  this  discussion  lies  in  her  vital  relation  to 
the  one  whose  office  is  the  subject  of  these  lectures. 

Let  this  discussion  begin  with  the  consideration 
of  some  false  attitudes  of  the  church  and  the  public 
generally  toward  the  minister’s  wife. 

(1)  Needless  commiseration.  Some  people 
think  it  is  pious  to  pity  the  preacher’s  wife.  The 
following  doggerel  from  the  Chicago  Record 
Herald  represents  a  view  of  her  which  is  ridiculous 
to  be  sure,  but  quite  prevalent. 

Oh,  pity  the  lot  of  a  minister’s  wife ; 

It  is  sinful  to  be  fair; 

She  must  not  try  to  seem  too  sublime  for  this  life, 
Yet  must  still  have  a  heavenly  air; 

She  must  never  view  others  with  critical  eyes. 

She  is  there  that  the  rest  may  themselves  criticise 
Whatever  she  does  or  may  wear. 

If  she  tries  to  be  humble,  her  sisters  will  say 
She  poses  and  isn’t  sincere ; 

If  she  shows  that  she’s  proud  of  her  prominence,  they 
Cast  looks  at  each  other  and  sneer. 


276 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


And  talk  of  the  folly  of  one  who  believes 
She’s  ‘‘  too  good  for  this  world,  while  her  husband 
receives 

Only  four  or  five  thousand  a  year.” 

If  she  seems  to  be  pleased  with  the  sermon,  the  rest 
Will  think  it  is  all  for  effect, 

Yet  she  must  not  pretend  to  indifference  lest 
They  may  talk  of  her  lack  of  respect ; 

They  call  her  a  frump  if  her  costume  is  plain. 

And  accuse  her  of  being  extravagant,  vain. 

If  she  dares  to  be  handsomely  decked. 

If  she  acts  like  a  saint  they  will  say  it’s  for  show, 

If  she  doesn’t  there’s  scandal.  Each  day 
She  is  under  the  gaze  of  the  high  and  the  low. 

And  though  she  inspires  him,  they 
Regard  the  poor  preacher  with  pity,  they  sigh. 

And  whispering  sadly,  go  wondering  why 
He  loves  her  so  much,  anyway. 

There  is  nothing  in  her  relation  to  the  church  to 
justify  such  a  caricature.  For  her  to  accept  the 
idea  that  she  is  the  proper  object  of  everybody’s 
pity  would  rob  her  position  of  its  romance  and  de¬ 
throne  her  noblest  ideals.  Next  to  self-pity,  covet¬ 
ing  or  even  tolerating  pity  from  others,  is  perhaps 
the  most  enervating  toxine.  If  she  recognizes  it 
and  accepts  it,  it  undermines  her  self-respect.  If 
she  recognizes  it  and  resents  it,  it  embarrasses  and 
handicaps  her  activities.  Ostentatious  pity  for  the 
right-thinking,  high-minded  pastor’s  wife  hurts  her 
heart  and  hinders  her  work. 


I 


THE  BISHOP-COADJUTOB  277 

(2)  Undue  exaltation.  The  other  extreme  is 
that  which  puts  the  preacher’s  wife  on  a  pedestal 
above  other  women.  People  who  address  other 
women  as  “  Mrs.”  call  the  preacher’s  wife  “  Sis¬ 
ter.”  Knowing  that  the  distinction  is  fictitious  and 
the  making  of  it  often  hollow  and  hypocritical 
gives  her  a  sickening  sense  of  aloofness.  Officially 
she  is  neither  better  nor  worse,  higher  nor  lower 
than  other  women  and  she  chafes  under  an  obsequi¬ 
ous  effort  to  apotheosize  her.  The  feeling  of 
aloofness  thus  generated  wounds  and  handicaps 
her. 

(3)  Excessive  demands.  In  many  churches 
there  is  a  disposition  especially  among  the  women 
to  make  a  pack-horse  of  the  pastor’s  wife.  She  is 
perhaps  physically  frail,  the  mother  of  children, 
financially  unable  to  keep  domestic  help  and  yet  is 
expected  to  teach  in  the  Sunday  school,  direct  the 
young  people’s  work,  be  president  of  the  women’s 
society,  visit  the  congregation,  look  after  the  sick 
and  distressed  and  perform  any  miscellaneous  tasks 
that  may  arise.  While  she  has  no  official  church 
position  and  is  therefore  not  formally  charged 
with  responsibility  above  other  women,  yet  being 
the  wife  of  one  who  holds  the  highest  official  place 
in  the  church  and  whose  whole  life  is  given  to  its 
service,  she  would  naturally  take  keener  interest 
and  have  a  larger  part  in  the  work  of  the  church 
than  the  average  woman.  Not  to  do  that  would 
mark  her  a  foolish  woman.  But  having  cheerfully 


278 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


made  that  admission,  I  wish  to  enter  a  protest 
against  the  over-exacting  demands  too  often  made 
on  her  time  and  strength.  If  she  is  not  a  weak¬ 
ling  to  be  coddled  and  pitied ;  if  she  is  not  a  queen 
to  be  pampered  and  petted,  neither  is  she  a  slave 
to  be  burdened  that  others  may  be  eased. 

But  let  us  next  inquire  what  kind  of  woman  the 
pastor’s  wife  ought  to  be.  The  Scriptures  are  si¬ 
lent  on  the  subject  unless  (wives)  in  1 

Timothy  3:  11  refers  not  only  to  deacons  in  verse 
8,  but  also  reaches  back  to  bishops  in  verse  2.  In 
which  case  it  is  required  that  they  be  sober-minded 
women,  not  slanderers,  but  temperate  in  every  way 
and  trustworthy  in  all  things.  Since  her  qualifica¬ 
tions  are  not  clearly  delineated  in  revelation  we 
shall  seek  such  help  as  we  may  from  reason  and 
observation.  In  view  of  the  work  her  husband  is 
called  to  do,  what  sort  of  woman  should  the  min¬ 
ister’s  wife  seek  to  be? 

While  this  book  was  brewing  Mrs.  E.  O.  Thomp¬ 
son,  along  with  her  preacher-husband,  took  my 
course  of  lectures  on  Pastoral  Theology.  During 
that  period  she  wrote  a  paper  on  “  The  Minister’s 
Wife.”  I  am  making  some  rather  copious  extracts 
from  her  discussion  of  the  qualifications  of  a  min¬ 
ister’s  wife. 

“  As  to  what  a  minister’s  wife  ought  to  be,  I 
should  say  first  of  all,  a  woman,  every  whit  a 
woman,  a  woman  with  all  the  graces  of  heart,  sim¬ 
plicity  of  demeanour  and  earnestness  of  life  that  it 


THE  BISHOP-COADJUTOE 


279 


takes  to  make  a  woman.  She  must  cultivate  and 
exemplify  to  the  world  in  voluntary  arts  of  devo¬ 
tion  that  womanliness  in  which  the  heart  of  Christ 
finds  its  supremest  earthly  expression.  Abrupt 
manners,  a  raspy  voice  and  careless  habits  discredit 
any  woman  and  the  display  of  them  by  a  minister’s 
wife  is  positively  a  calamity,  because  her  promi¬ 
nence  exhibits  the  value  of  culture  and  refinement 
and  her  position  requires  the  highest  personal  at¬ 
tainments.  Peevishness  and  narrow-mindedness 
are  inconsistent  with  our  ideal  of  womanhood  in 
any  sphere  and  in  a  minister’s  wife  they  are  un¬ 
bearable,  because  her  example  wields  a  mighty  in¬ 
fluence  and  her  power  for  good  demands  breadth 
of  vision  and  hopeful  courage  in  meeting  the  trials 
and  petty  annoyances  of  life.  So  by  all  means 
let  the  minister’s  wife  cultivate  and  exemplify  all 
the  womanly  graces  and  attractiveness  of  which  she 
is  capable. 

Besides  being  a  woman  of  gentle  habits  and 
gracious  courtesy,  the  minister’s  wife  should  be  an 
ideal  companion  for  the  minister  and  to  do  this  she 
must  be  his  compeer  physically,  intellectually  and 
spiritually.  Physically,  woman  is  weaker  than 
man,  but  this  only  argues  for  the  care  of  the  bodily 
temple  so  that  it  may  be  as  efficient  for  a  woman’s 
work  as  man’s  is  for  his  work.  Life  means  joy, 
vigour  and  freedom  from  unnecessary  pain  and 
upon  the  soundness  of  health  and  physical  fitness 
of  the  wife  depends  much  of  the  minister’s  sue- 


280 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


cess.  But  not  only  must  a  minister’s  wife  strive  to 
be  well,  but  it  is  her  duty  to  keep  herself  as  attrac¬ 
tive  and  lovable  as  she  was  before  marriage,  in 
fact  it  is  well  not  only  to  abound  in  this  grace  but 
to  grow  in  it  also.  The  minister  soon  learns  that 
it  is  much  easier  to  secure  a  good  pastorate  than 
to  maintain  a  good  one  and  just  as  surely  should 
the  minister’s  wife  realize  that  if  personal  attrac¬ 
tiveness  aided  in  awakening  love  it  will  do  just  as 
much,  if  not  more,  in  increasing  love.  Many  a 
man’s  admiration  for  his  wife  has  been  lost  by 
unkempt  hair  and  uncared-for  hands  and  his  de¬ 
votion  killed  by  ill-fitting  dresses  and  soiled  ap¬ 
parel.  Costly  material  is  not  required,  but  a  little 
ingenuity  and  a  reasonable  amount  of  care  will 
work  wonders  and  insure  the  personal  attractive¬ 
ness  necessary  for  perfect  happiness  and  extensive 
usefulness. 

''  But  companionship  does  not  rest  alone  on  per¬ 
sonal  charms  but  must  be  sustained  by  mental  ac¬ 
tivity  and  intellectual  comradeship.  Once  upon  a 
time  in  the  far  bygone  days,  men  thought  that  be¬ 
cause  women  were  the  weaker  vessel  they  were 
also  the  smaller.  In  a  more  recent  time  they  have 
realized  that  a  fragile  china  bowl  may  hold  as 
much  as  a  heavy  iron  pot.  To-day  they  not  only 
acknowledge  the  possibility  but  demand  the  actual¬ 
ity.  There  is  no  reason  why  a  minister’s  wife 
should  not  be  his  intellectual  equal,  for  educational 
opportunities  are  as  great  for  her  as  for  him  and 


THE  BISHOP-COADJUTOR 


281 


now  special  schools  are  built  to  train  preachers’ 
wives  as  well  as  aspirants  for  the  position. 

“  But  it  takes  more  than  personal  attractiveness 
and  intellectual  equality  to  produce  perfect  com¬ 
radeship.  There  must  be  a  mating  of  the  spiritual 
lives.  The  hearts  of  the  minister  and  his  wife, 
strangely  drawn  together,  must  quicken  to  the  an¬ 
swering  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  must  dwell  continu¬ 
ally  in  His  presence  and  trust  without  reserve  in 
His  promise,  ‘  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always.’  ” 

Having  given  some  time  to  discussing  her  quali¬ 
fications  for  the  task,  let  us  now  examine  the  task 
itself.  What  is  the  minister’s  wife  to  do  ? 

1.  In  the  first  place,  barring  providential  disabil¬ 
ities,  she  is  to  be  a  mother.  It  is  important  that  she 
be  a  helper  to  her  husband  in  the  public  work  of 
the  church.  But  there  is  a  duty  more  ancient,  more 
honourable  and  far  more  important  than  that.  The 
preacher  and  his  wife  are  wrong  if  they  suppose 
that  they  are  called  upon  to  forego  the  privilege  of 
parenthood  that  the  wife  may  function  unhampered 
in  the  public  activities  of  the  church.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  an  official  preacher’s-wifedom  that 
precludes  the  duty,  the  privilege,  and  the  honour 
of  motherhood.  Napoleon,  so  often  wrong,  was 
right  when  he  said,  ‘‘  The  greatest  need  of  France 
is  mothers.”  Cornelia  put  Motherhood  in  its  right 
place  of  honour  when  she  said,  “  Call  me  no  longer 
the  daughter  of  Scipio  but  call  me  the  Mother  of 
the  Gracchi.”  On  her  monument,  which  stone 


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may  be  still  seen  in  the  Capitoline  Museum  at 
Rome,  they  inscribed  at  her  request  the  simple 
words,  Cornelia,  Mother  of  the  Gracchi.’^  It 
would  have  been  nice  if  the  Presbyterian  minister’s 
wife  sixty  years  ago  could  have  gone  with  her  hus¬ 
band  to  Presbytery,  Synod  and  General  Assembly, 
but  it  was  infinitely  better  that  about  that  time  she 
should  bear  and  rear  Woodrow  Wilson.  It  would 
have  been  nice  if  the  Baptist  preacher’s  wife  about 
that  same  time  could  have  gone  with  her  husband 
to  Associations  and  Conventions  and  read  brilliant 
reports  before  Women’s  Unions,  but  is  it  not  a 
thousand  times  better  that  she  was  kept  at  home 
to  care  for  her  baby  whose  name  was  C.  E. 
Hughes?  If  all  preachers’  wives  had  adopted  the 
growing  tendency  to  enforced  barrenness  in  order 
that  public  functions  might  be  discharged,  the 
world  would  be  darker  by  the  absence  of  such 
luminaries  as  Addison,  Coleridge,  Cowper,  Ben 
Johnson,  Goldsmith,  Tennyson,  Lowell,  Christo¬ 
pher  Wren,  Matthew  Arnold,  Holmes,  Hazlett, 
Bancroft,  Froude,  Parkman,  Emerson,  Henry 
Clay,  Edward  Everett,  Kingsley,  Mark  Patterson, 
Wm.  Stead,  F.  B.  Morse,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  Chester 
A.  Arthur,  Levi  P.  Morton,  Grover  Cleveland, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Jonathan  Edwards,  Canon 
Farrar,  A.  P.  Stanley,  Robert  Hall,  Norman  Mc¬ 
Leod,  Richard  Storrs,  Lyman  Abbott,  Marcus 
Dods,  C.  H.  Spurgeon,  B.  H.  Carroll,  Woodrow 
Wilson  and  C.  E.  Hughes,  for  these  all  were  the 


THE  BISHOP-COADJUTOE 


283 


sons  of  preachers.  They  are  not  samples  of  one 
lonesome  child  in  the  home  but  almost  without  ex¬ 
ception  were  one  of  a  goodly  group  of  brothers 
and  sisters.  History  proves  that  a  well-ordered 
parsonage  affords  ideal  atmosphere  for  the  growth 
of  stalwart  men  and  queenly  women.  The  world’s 
loss  will  be  incalculable  when  the  manse  no  longer 
rings  with  the  merry  shout  of  the  preacher’s  chil¬ 
dren. 

2.  But  a  second  thing  to  he  said  about  what  the 
preacher's  wife  should  do  is  that  she  should  he  a 
home  keeper.  This  does  not  imply  that  she  should 
be  chained  Prometheus-like  to  the  walls  of  the 
house  in  which  she  lives.  It  does  mean,  however, 
that  she  should  recognize  the  duty,  should  be  ac¬ 
corded  the  right  and  should  be  afforded  the  op¬ 
portunity  of  making  a  home  a  real  genuine  home 
for  herself,  her  husband  and  her  children.  We 
hear  some  talk  of  the  sacred  desk  ”  and  the 
sanctity  of  the  pulpit.  I  do  not  discount  the  value 
of  these  symbols  of  divine  authority  when  I  put 
the  home  above  them  as  sources  of  power  or  sym¬ 
bols  of  holiness.  The  chivalrous  man  stands  with 
solemn  reverence  b}^  the  stone  that  marks  his  moth¬ 
er’s  grave,  and  there  are  blessed  memories  that 
make  it  a  sacred  spot,  but  if  there  is  a  holy  spot  on 
this  earth  it  is  a  home.  To  every  right-thinking 
I  man  home  is  the  holy  of  holies,  where  he  must  walk 

with  uncovered  head  and  feet  unsandalled.  Who¬ 
ever  through  greed  or  lust  or  pride  or  prejudice 


i 


j 


284 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


destroys  a  home  has  committed  the  highest  crime. 
Whoever  by  selfishness  or  thoughtlessness  mars  a 
home  has  spoiled  earth’s  fairest  and  most  fragrant 
flower.  Whoever  sacrifices  home  upon  a  petty  am¬ 
bition  to  shine  in  the  world  or  upon  a  thought  of 
doing  more  good  in  a  .supposedly  larger  sphere 
prostitutes  the  oldest,  the  holiest,  the  most  benefi¬ 
cent  of  God’s  institutions.  Paul  was  not  speaking 
as  a  cynical  old  bachelor  but  as  a  wise  philosopher 
and  an  inspired  apostle  when  he  wrote  to  a  young 
preacher,  I  will  that  younger  women  marry  and 
guide  the  house.” 

3.  Blit  added  to  motherhood  and  home-making, 
the  minister's  wife  has  the  duty  of  helping  her  hus¬ 
band  in  his  duties.  She  will  not  write  his  sermons 
nor  drill  him  in  their  delivery.  She  will  not  make 
his  pastoral  visits  nor  habitually  accompany  him 
when  he  makes  them,  but  she  will  put  forth  an 
unseen  but  potent  hand  on  these  and  all  his  other 
tasks.  Her  delicate  touch  and  intuitional  inter¬ 
pretation  of  trying  situations  will  cover  a  multi¬ 
tude  of  masculine  sins.  A  wise  wife  often  saves 
the  preacher  from  the  blunders  of  others  and  more 
often  saves  him  from  his  own  folly.  Some  of  us 
preachers  are  so  inherently  bent  toward  blundering 
that  we  remind  ourselves  and  all  thoughtful  ob¬ 
servers  of  an  ox  in  a  crockery  house.  But  for  the 
chastening,  mellowing,  restraining,  inspiring  and 
usually  silent  influence  of  a  good  wife  some  of  us 
long  ago  would  have  smashed  every  shelf  in  the 


THE  BISHOP-COADJUTOE 


285 


shop.  Sometimes  when  like  John  Mark,  we  have 
lain  down  in  the  harness  she  has,  figuratively  at 
least,  picked  us  up  and  carried  us  out  on  her  shoul¬ 
ders.  When  Guelph  of  Bavaria  surrendered  to 
Conrad  III,  his  wife  requested  for  herself  and  her 
lady  companions  immunity  for  themselves  and 
whatever  they  could  carry  out  of  the  castle.  The 
request  being  granted  all  were  astonished  to  see 
them  coming  forth  bearing  their  husbands  on  their 
backs.  Known  unto  me  is  the  preacher,  and  his 
name  is  Legion,  who  has  ridden  into  all  his  noble 
achievements  on  the  back  of  a  devoted  wife. 

“  Oh !  Woman  Mother !  Woman  Wife  I 
Sweetest  name  the  language  knows. 

Thy  heart  with  pure  affections  rife, 

Thy  bosom  with  purest  motive  glows. 

Thou  queen,  thou  angel  of  my  life. 

Few  are  the  friends  my  life  hath  made. 

Few  are  they  who  in  my  hand  their  hearts 
have  laid 

And  these  were  women. 

I  am  old  and  never  yet  have  I  been 
betrayed.” 

But  the  repertoire  of  the  pastor’s  wife  is  not 
confined  to  motherhood,  home-making  and  being  a 
silent  partner  in  her  husband’s  achievements.  She 
has  her  own  definite  zvork,  a  zvork  peculiar  to  her 
position,  a  work  growing  out  of  her  quasi-official 
connection  with  the  church  and  a  work  therefore 
of  such  nature  that  it  cannot  be  done  by  any  other 


286 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


woman.  Now  what  is  to  be  the  nature  of  her  wort 
in  the  church  ?  {a)  In  the  first  place,  it  must  not  be 
perfunctory.  Like  her  husband,  she  is  constantly 
tempted  to  do  her  work  professionally.  She  must 
pray  daily  for  freshness,  fervour,  spontaneity. 
Holy  spiritual  fires  must  be  kept  burning  in  her 
heart  lest  her  church  activities  become  mechanical. 
The  woman  who  makes  “  pastor’s-wifing  ”  a  pro¬ 
fession  is  a  very  unsatisfactory  individual.  The 
woman  who  is  active  in  the  church  during  her 
husband’s  pastorate  but  loses  all  interest  when  his 
pastorate  ceases  is  not  worth  anything  now  and 
really  was  not  worth  much  then.  (&)  Again,  she 
must  not  he  domineering.  She  must  lead  hut  not 
boss  and  her  leadership  must  he  from  the  rear  and 
not  from  the  front.  She  must  know,  and  if  she 
does  not  know  she  must  learn,  how  to  enlist  and  en¬ 
courage  others.  The  wisest  woman  I  ever  knew 
always  maintained  that  the  pastor’s  wife  should 
never  be  president  of  the  woman’s  society.  No¬ 
body  ever  thought  of  her  as  a  leader  in  any  move¬ 
ment.  She  never  held  office  nor  wore  any  badge 
of  leadership,  but  she  was  the  dominant  spirit 
among  the  women  in  every  church  where  her  hus¬ 
band  has  been  pastor.  She  gained  ascendency  by 
following  two  maxims, — First,  Keep  yourself  out 
of  sight,  and  Second,  Let  all  your  plans  be  un¬ 
selfish.  When  the  women  in  a  church  discover 
that  the  plans  of  the  pastor’s  wife  point  toward  the 
parsonage  or  any  other  personal  or  selfish  end  then 


THE  BISHOP-COADJUTOR 


287 


and  there  she  drops  her  sceptre  of  power  and  can 
never  pick  it  up.  Blessings  on  the  pastor’s  wife 
who  is  qualified  for  leadership,  knows  how  to  lead 
from  the  rear  and  is  willing  to  lead  for  the  glory 
of  Christ.  I  bare  my  head  in  her  saintly  presence. 
The  other  kind  gives  me  neurasthenia,  which  being 
interpreted  is  nervous  prostration. 

(c)  But  there  is  yet  another  sphere  where  the 
pastor's  wife  may,  as  such,  make  herself  useful — 
the  community  at  large.  She  will  probably  not  be 
a  club  woman,  certainly  not  a  society  woman,  but 
even  though  she  is  a  mother  and  her  husband’s 
church  is  large  she  ought  to  find  some  time  for 
lending  a  hand  in  enterprises  of  general  community 
interest.  Aside  from  the  specific  good  done,  such  , 
activities  broaden  her  sympathies,  extend  her  ac¬ 
quaintance  and  enlarge  the  sphere  of  her  influence. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  give  a  word  of  exhortation 
to  my  young  preacher  brothers:  See  that  your  wife 
has  a  chance  to  grow  while  you  grow.  I  am  think¬ 
ing  now  of  a  preacher  who  when  an  ignorant  boy 
married  a  noble  but  uneducated  girl.  Afterwards 
called  to  preach,  the  churches  took  him  up  and  edu¬ 
cated  him.  In  middle  life  he  is  an  educated,  cul¬ 
tured  gentleman.  With  little  opportunity  and  per¬ 
haps  no  encouragement  for  self-culture  the  wife 
has  remained  a  noble  but  ignorant  woman.  Worse 
than  that,  she  is  a  heart-broken  woman  because  she 
feels  herself  to  be  a  millstone  about  her  husband’s 
neck.  Worse  than  all  that,  the  work  of  the  King- 


288 


THE  HIGHEST  OFFICE 


dom  is  hindered  because  even  the  trained  pastor 
cannot  do  his  best  with  such  a  handicap.  I  am  a 
sentimental  believer  in  love,  even  in  love  at  first 
sight,  in  the  irrevocable,  once  for  all,  divinely  or¬ 
dered  mating  of  souls.  I  am,  therefore,  against  the 
preacher  who  selects  a  wife  as  he  would  pick  a 
horse,  because  he  thinks  she  has  qualities  fitting  her 
to  the  job  of  preacher’s  wifedom.  When  as  a 
youth  they  told  me  that  a  given  young  woman 
would  make  a  fine  preacher’s  wife,  I  always  let 
her  alone.  I  was  not  hunting  for  a  woman  to  take 
a  job — to  fill  a  position.  I  was  waiting  for  some 
one  to  come  my  way,  whether  Barbarian,  Scythian, 
bond  or  free,  whose  soul  would  respond  to  my  own 
— and  thank  God  she  came.  The  brethren  feared, 
not  entirely  without  ground,  that  she  would  not 
make  a  good  pastor’s  wife.  But  thank  God  she 
did.  But  having  in  all  sincerity  said  all  this,  let 
me  further  say  that  the  beginning  and  perpetuity 
of  this  mating  of  souls  is  based  not  on  physical 
charms  but  on  intellectual  and  spiritual  comrade¬ 
ship.  If  woman  and  man  do  not  grow  together 
mentally  and  spiritually  this  soul  harmony  is 
marred  and  all  the  romance  is  gone  out  of  life. 
Take  the  romance  out  of  life  and  it  is  a  desert — 
stale,  flat  and  unprofitable.  Therefore,  give  the 
young  preacher's  wife  a  chance  to  grow  even  as 
her  husband  grows. 


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